RWE nears completion on two data center deals as €42B investment plan targets surging power demand

German energy giant RWE is on the verge of signing two data center development agreements, marking a strategic push into the fast-growing digital infrastructure sector as Europe's power demand accelerates.

The announcement came during the company's Q2 earnings call, where CEO Markus Krebber confirmed that negotiations have reached an advanced stage. "We are further advancing the development of data center sites," he said. "Two sites are nearing agreement over the next month."

Krebber declined to disclose specific details ahead of the official signing, but suggested that these two deals are likely just the beginning of a broader expansion. "We now see the need to build what I like to call operational data centers in Europe, not to train the models, but which you need to have close to your customers to solve the latency problems," he explained. "They are coming, and big time. It's just a question of time. So we do one step after another, we don't want to rush into it."

The company is leveraging its existing infrastructure portfolio to gain a competitive edge in the data center market. "We own 30 sites with good electricity infrastructure. That is a real asset. They are suitable not only for new gas-fired power plants or batteries, but also for data centers," Krebber added.

RWE also signaled that additional Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with data center operators are in the pipeline. "I see the demand coming, especially from the tech companies. The moment they decide to build a data center, they typically procure green power for it," Krebber noted.

To meet the escalating demand for electricity driven largely by data center expansion, RWE announced plans for total net investments of €42 billion ($48.4 billion) from 2026 to 2031, spanning renewables, flexible generation, and regulated grid infrastructure. The company also expects to bring online more than 3GW of gas generation capacity in the US by 2035, having already secured up to 10GW of capacity there.

In a related development, RWE said it had selected two of its former nuclear sites in Gundremmingen and Biblis as fusion energy hubs, designated by the German Federal Ministry — one for magnetic fusion technology and one for laser fusion technology.

RWE has a long-established relationship with the data center market, having signed PPAs with major hyperscalers including Meta, AWS, and Google. The company has also tapped AWS to provide cloud and AI services for its own operations.

Industry observers view RWE's move as a significant signal of how traditional energy companies are repositioning themselves to capture value from the data center boom. By combining land, grid connections, and power generation assets, utilities are increasingly becoming indispensable partners in the digital infrastructure value chain, particularly in Europe where land and grid capacity are scarce.