Feb 20 (Reuters) -

Southern Co ( SO ) boosted its base capital investment

forecast through the end of the decade to $63 billion, or about

30% more than the previous plan, executives with the major U.S.

power provider said on Thursday.

Transmission projects make up the largest portion of the

proposed spending increase.

Growing demand from artificial intelligence data centers

and population surges in the U.S. South have driven up Southern

Co's ( SO ) electricity demand, and pushed broader electricity

consumption to record highs, company executives said on an

earnings call.

Southern serves nearly 9 million customers in Alabama,

Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia.

Southern's pipeline of data center customers, and other

very large electricity users, is more than 50 gigawatts, with

subsidiary Georgia Power's share sitting at about 40 gigawatts.

About 10 gigawatts of that pipeline are committed

projects.

The expansion of technologies like generative AI, which

need giant data centers, has helped to drive U.S. power demand

to record highs in 2024.

Shares of Southern Co ( SO ) rose about 2% at mid-afternoon.

Despite rising demand, Southern narrowly missed Wall

Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, as it

took a hit from higher U.S. interest rates.

Southern Co's ( SO ) interest costs for the October-December

quarter rose to $693 million from $634 million last year.

Total operating expenses rose 9% to $5.28 billion, with

operating and maintenance costs climbing 14.6% to $1.99 billion.