Liam Denning, Columnist

Constellation’s $30 Billion Calpine Talks Are Fueled by AI — and Gas

A potential acquisition would pay off a private equity bet and signal robust demand for electricity generated by any means necessary.

January 8, 2025 at 8:39 PM UTC

Updated on

January 9, 2025 at 2:41 AM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

The left-for-dead merchant generation sector is suddenly hot again.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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Calpine Corp.’s buyout in 2018 symbolized the end of an era. Is it now heralding a renaissance?

Calpine is said to be close to selling itself to Constellation Energy Corp. for about $30 billion, including debt, according to a report from Bloomberg News on Wednesday afternoon. If so, it would represent a stunning return for Calpine’s private equity owners and an artificial intelligence-inspired resurrection for a sector that had been left for dead.