Utility giant Duke Energy plans to spend industry record $103 billion on growth as data centers and affordability take center stage

Utility giant Duke Energy may not be a household name, but it sits at the epicenter of the AI data center boom and affordability debate as it plans to spend an industry record of $103 billion for growth over just five years—and CEO Harry Sideris isn’t afraid to say he expects that eye-popping number to grow. “Ours will probably go up as we move into the future because the growth is not slowing down,” Sideris told Fortune in a sit-down interview recently, citing the AI surge. “We’re only beginning. This thing is not just a blip; it’s going to go on for a while into the foreseeable future.” Charlotte-based Duke aims to add about 20 gigawatts of new power generation over a decade through gas-fired power plants, solar energy, battery storage, grid upgrades, and efficiency gains. That’s enough to service about 15 million homes. Compare that to the nearly 17 million residents in the combined Carolinas. And that’s not even counting the next-generation nuclear power that Duke aspires to add in due time. Duke counts Amazon , Microsoft , Google , and Meta as major data center customers and has some of the fastest-growing states in population in its Southern and Midwestern service area. Charlotte-based Duke—the highest-ranking utility in the Fortune 500 at No. 144—leads the regulated utility industry in power generation and grid scale. The 125-year-old company gets its name from the power and tobacco industrialist, James Buchanan “Buck” Duke, whose family also gave its name to Duke University. “It’s a good time to be in the utility business. I say that we’re the cool kids now,” said Sideris, who just finished his first year as CEO following an entire career at Duke and predecessor companies. “Everybody else has picked up on it.” But despite Duke touting an emphasis on affordability and rate hikes below industry peers, its rates are still rising . Data centers account for only a fraction of the price increases, but the overall situation has sparked a feud with the Democratic N…