Alphabet to Buy Data Center Partner Intersect for $4.75 Billion

Alphabet Inc. has agreed to buy clean energy developer Intersect Power LLC for $4.75 billion in cash, plus existing debt, marking one of the largest deals by the tech giant to dramatically expand its data center footprint for AI.

The acquisition, announced Monday, is intended to give Alphabet’s Google access to more electricity for its data centers as aging US grids struggle to meet power demand that’s booming for the first time in decades thanks in part to artificial intelligence. Google took a minority stake in the energy provider last year by entering a partnership with Intersect to build big energy plants next to data center campuses, Bloomberg previously reported.