Berkshire Will Serve Data Centers Only If Other Bills Don't Rise

Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's successor, spoke to CNBC from Tokyo on September 2. Asked about selling power to AI data centers, he expressed interest — then attached a condition.

The Condition Set in Tokyo

"we are interested in serving these hyperscalers ... if there was no impact to the rates of our other customers"

He then tightened it: there has to be a net benefit to existing customers. The constraint is not generating energy but the time it takes to ready a site.

The project must also be welcomed by its host community:

"There is a lot more pushback in the communities across the U.S."

A software executive building data centers spends his own capital; a utility executive recovers it through regulator-approved rates, which puts the households paying the bill inside the equation.

How Large Berkshire's Power Business Actually Is

Berkshire Hathaway's utility side is less discussed than its insurance, railroads and equity portfolio, but it is not small. Berkshire Hathaway Energy holds MidAmerican in Iowa, PacifiCorp across six states and NV Energy in Nevada. That is $148.3 billion of total assets as of 2025, and 13 million customers and end-users in the United States, Great Britain and Alberta.

MidAmerican alone serves 838,000 electric and 811,000 natural gas customers, with 12,243 megawatts of net owned generation.

Second-quarter after-tax earnings at the American utilities rose 38% to $597 million, the energy group $891 million, up 27%.

Retail volumes grew about 3% through June, MidAmerican leading at 6%. First-half capital spending was $10.6 billion, with $8.6 billion more forecast for the year's remainder.

A Stated Preference Versus a Binding Instrument

What exactly was said? A preference — not a prohibition, not a rule, not even a commitment, but a standard the company set for itself and can loosen for itself.

Is there an instrument that makes it binding? Not from Berkshire. State instruments exist, and they were written quickly in 2026.

MidAmerican's large users pay for the substation and line that connects them. They commit to ten years of power even if consumption fluctuates, and pay a penalty for leaving early.

Pennsylvania's commission adopted its large-load tariff framework 5-0. It covers customers above 50 MW alone or 100 MW in aggregate, and requires interconnection studies within six months.

Oregon's Schedule 96 makes a customer above 20 MW pay a minimum charge at 90% of contracted capacity. It must also fund 100% of its distribution upgrades.

Above 100 MW it adds 1 cent per kilowatt-hour. The term starts at ten years and reaches thirty above 220 MW.

Does the instrument's scope cover the problem? Partly: a retail tariff protects that utility's own customers but not costs formed in the wholesale market.

Who Pays: The Arithmetic Worked Through

One calculation shows why the condition is easy to state and hard to hold. The figures below are illustrative; only the customer count is real.

A ten-year commitment covers one-third of a thirty-year asset; the rest is unprotected the moment the contract ends. Oregon's clause stretching the term to thirty years as load grows exists to close that gap.

MidAmerican says an early-exit penalty applies, but its size is not public — and that size decides the outcome. If it covers the remaining invested capital the gap closes; if not, the difference lands on other customers.

That is why the condition lives in contract clauses, not in a television sentence. As in risk management, the contract settles who carries a risk.

What the Tariff Cannot Reach

Part of the supply is bought in regional wholesale markets, where the price formed enters everyone's bill. PJM's capacity auctions — the largest regional market in the country — are the clearest example.

PJM's independent market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, attributed $6.3 billion of the latest auction's $16.4 billion in charges — 38% — to data centers. Across the last four auctions it was $29.4 billion of $63.6 billion. Joseph Bowring put it directly: "you are paying for higher energy and transmission costs data centers have caused"

Berkshire's territories are not inside PJM, but the mechanism travels: a wholesale price formed in a neighboring region reaches its customers' bills however careful its own tariff is. Abel's condition governs his own book, not the market.

Two Readings

What Is Left

The most measurable part of Abel's remarks is the third condition: a data center must be welcomed where it is built. That is an admission that permitting timelines will lengthen.

It is the same point as saying site preparation, not generation, is the constraint.

Data centers at 8% of MidAmerican's Iowa load also mean property tax revenue for schools and local services. That is why the condition is "net benefit" rather than "we will not serve them."

Watch how close contract terms in approved large-load tariffs move to the assets' useful life, and how much of the remaining invested capital exit penalties cover.

This article draws on CNBC's September 2 interview as relayed by multiple outlets, Monitoring Analytics' July 20 assessment, decisions by the Pennsylvania and Oregon public utility commissions, MidAmerican Energy's own disclosures and Berkshire Hathaway Energy's 2026 corporate overview. Abel's quoted remarks match verbatim across more than one account. The $2 billion investment, 9.5% return and thirty-year life used in the worked example are illustrative; MidAmerican's actual contract terms are not public.

Correction (September 13, 2026): prose tightened for rhythm; figures and sources unchanged.