Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund(XLU)Earnings, Financials & Key Ratios

US electricity demand grew roughly flat for a decade. That ended once hyperscalers began signing twenty-year power purchase agreements to feed AI training clusters.

The State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) was launched on December 16, 1998, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Utilities - Broad segment of the equity market.

State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF offers defensive exposure with growing clean energy relevance, especially as AI-driven power demand accelerates. XLU's top holdings are securing long-term clean energy agreements with major tech firms, positioning the ETF as a proxy for AI infrastructure growth. While most XLU holdings are fairly valued short-term, forward P/E ratios suggest increasing undervaluation by 2027, supporting a medium-to-long-term buy case.

In H1 2026, part of my 2026 framework was confirmed: AI‑driven productivity, industrial strength, and utilities' power‑demand tailwinds played out, while the Iran shock created the only major deviation from expectations. However, the macro backdrop is changing: Brent is back in contango, Warsh is firmly higher‑for‑longer, growth and labor remain resilient, and hyperscalers continue pushing toward trillion‑dollar cumulative AI capex.

If you own the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLU) as your AI power play, the logic is straightforward: data centers need electricity, regulated utilities sell electricity, so XLU should capture the demand wave.