Energy IPOs surge as investors hunt for ways to play AI boom
by Martha Muir in New York from Ars Technica - All content on (#771DB)
Energy companies are raising money at IPO at their fastest pace this century, taking advantage of investors' hunt for new ways to bet on the boom in power-intensive AI data centers.
Initial public offerings for energy firms raised $12.6 billion in the first half of this year, according to data firm Dealogic. That marks the highest half-year level since the peak of the dotcom bubble in late 1999 and the highest first-half figure on record. It is well above 2025's full-year total of $4.3 billion.
The surge in fundraising comes as access to the vast amounts of energy needed to run data centers emerges as a bottleneck in a multi-trillion-dollar AI investment boom.