Entergy Corporation

Entergy has turned into a builder. Four quarters of data-center contracts grew its four-year capital plan from $41 billion to $57 billion, and the returns now depend on regulators clearing each plant before the customers behind it start paying. How much of the $57 billion plan is already approved by regulators?

• The growth forecast has been raised twice in six months.

  The Meta contract lifted the retail sales outlook to 8.5% growth and industrial load to 16% a year through 2029. Signed contracts turn a forecast into billable demand, which is why each update has raised the outlook instead of defending it. How much of the 2029 sales growth comes from contracts already signed?

• The build is being paid for before it earns.

  Capital spending hit its highest quarter yet, and free cash flow has been negative in six of the last nine quarters. The Meta plants do not run until the next decade, so the cost arrives years before the sales that pay for it. How much of the Meta expansion capital sits outside the four-year plan?

• Regulators, not customers, are the gate.

  Arkansas lets Entergy recover economic-development spending outside its rate cap and Louisiana fast-tracks big loads. That is what turns a pipeline into contracts, but New Orleans' data-center moratorium shows it can stop.