Alphabet has agreed to acquire Intersect Power for $4.75 billion in cash, plus the assumption of debt, in a deal that highlights that hyperscalers are rethinking how they secure power for artificial intelligence at scale. The transaction brings multiple gigawatts of energy and data center projects under Google’s control, while leaving Intersect as a standalone operator.
Founded in 2016, San Francisco-based Intersect Power specializes in pairing renewable generation and battery storage with large industrial loads, including data centers. Its portfolio includes more than 2 gigawatts of operating solar assets and several gigawatt-hours of battery storage, largely concentrated in Texas and California. The assets included in the acquisition consist of projects under development or construction that are tied to Intersect’s partnership with Google.
The deal gives Google access to energy and data center capacity that can be developed in tandem, an increasingly valuable advantage as utilities struggle to keep pace with AI-driven demand. Training and running large-scale AI models requires vast, reliable power supplies, and grid congestion has become a growing constraint in key U.S. markets.
Compute Adjacent to Power
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent Alphabet, said the acquisition will allow the company to expand capacity more quickly and align new power generation with new data center loads. That alignment is the strategic core of the deal. Rather than waiting for utilities to add capacity, Google is effectively moving upstream, securing power development alongside its own infrastructure buildout.
Intersect will remain a separate company following the transaction and continue to operate under the leadership of founder and CEO Sheldon Kimber. The company will work closely with Google’s technical infrastructure teams on joint projects, including a previously announced co-located data center and power site now under construction in Haskell County, Texas.
The Haskell project offers a glimpse into how this model works. These data parks place data centers adjacent to renewable generation and storage, reducing reliance on strained transmission networks and speeding time to operation. Google will be the primary tenant, but the campuses are designed to host other industrial and AI-focused vendors as well.
Deal Suggests a New Chapter
Alphabet’s move stands out in an industry where complete acquisitions of energy or data center developers have been relatively rare. Large technology companies have typically relied on power purchase agreements, joint ventures, or third-party developers to keep massive capital investments off their balance sheets. This deal suggests that, at least for AI-era infrastructure, those structures may no longer be sufficient.
The transaction also builds on an existing relationship. Google previously held a minority stake in Intersect following an $800 million funding round last year, with a long-term investment target of $20 billion by 2030. Buying the company outright accelerates that strategy and reduces execution risk as AI workloads continue to scale.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of the year, pending regulatory approvals. Given that it does, it will leave Alphabet with a more vertically integrated approach to AI infrastructure, one that treats energy not as a downstream procurement problem but as a core design constraint.
