AI Power Demand Continues to Surge: 5 Highest Yielding Utility Stocks You Can Hold for Decades

The tradeable insight is not “AI helps utilities,” but that it widens the spread between utilities that can convert load growth into rate base quickly and those that merely absorb capex. ES and POR look better positioned than the broader group because incremental demand in their territories can support a longer growth runway without needing a heroic multiple re-rating; EIX is more of a battle between constructive load growth and structurally higher litigation/regulatory discount. BIP is the cleanest way to express the infrastructure buildout theme because its cash flows should reprice faster than a pure regulated utility if digital and grid assets keep attracting capital.

The near-term risk is that investors are extrapolating demand before the bottlenecks clear. Interconnection queues, transformer lead times, permitting, and rate-case timing mean earnings benefits often lag 2-4 quarters behind the narrative, while financing costs hit immediately; that can compress FCF and force equity issuance at the wrong time for the more levered names. Watch EIX and AVA for any sign that capex intensity rises faster than allowed recovery, and treat higher long-end yields as the key variable that can turn this from a growth story into a balance-sheet story.

Contrarian view: the consensus may be overpricing the immediacy of monetization and underpricing regulatory drag. The real winners over 6-18 months are likely the utilities with the best balance between load growth and constructive commissions, not necessarily the ones with the biggest AI headline exposure. If hyperscaler capex pauses or a rate case turns hostile, the group can de-rate quickly because the market is already paying for a future load ramp that has not yet shown up in cash flow.