In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said electricity load growth in the U.S. is the largest since the industrial boom that followed the end of World War II. "You have to go back to 1945 and the end of World War II to see the infrastructure build-out that was coming," he said. "We had to expand the power grid, not only for economic growth, but also for national security. For both reasons, we need to do it again now, and that's exactly what we're going to do."
Strazik claimed that over the last 20 to 40 years there have "always been winners and losers" in technological changes to the electricity grid, with some companies trying to replace others. However, he emphasized that this expansion of the power grid, along with new artificial intelligence, will enable the economic growth the U.S. needs.
GE Vernova, General Electric's spin-off into the power sector, released quarterly earnings on Wednesday that beat estimates and sent share prices up just over 3% by the close of trading.
The company also maintained its guidance for the year, despite the potential impact of tariffs on the business. Strazik spoke about GE Vernova's gas division and boasted that the company had sold out gas turbine orders for 2026 and 2027. According to him, gas will play an important role as hyperscalers continue to build out data centers and confirmed that the company has substantial orders in the data center sector. "We have decarbonized the power grid in the U.S. by switching to cold gas, and ultimately gas is the driving factor behind the expansion of wind and solar power," he said. "Without gas, we can't achieve the global renewable energy penetration rate we're aiming for."