Exxon Mobil is “well along” in a plan to build its first commercial power plant, fueled by natural gas, to directly supply electricity to data centers, the company announced Wednesday. It’s a shift in strategy for the Spring-based oil and gas giant,

US multinational oil and gas major ExxonMobil has revealed plans for a new 1.5GW natural gas-fired power plant dedicated to powering data centers. The project is in the early stages of development. It would mark the first time Exxon has built a power plant that does not supply energy to its own operations.

Exxon believes data centers could account for up to 20 percent of the total addressable market for CCS in 2050.

Exxon and Chevron see natural gas and carbon capture technology playing a key role in meeting AI's power needs.

ExxonMobil is preparing to join the power generation business, seeing an opportunity to support the electricity supply for energy-intensive data centers.

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This would be the first time Exxon built a power plant that wasn’t intended to power its own operations, the New York Times reported.

Exxon Mobil plans to invest heavily into several big projects over the next six years, even as some other oil companies are growing more cautious, the company said at an investor day on Wednesday. All that investment comes at a time when most analysts expect oil prices to fall next year because of a glut—which may be why Exxon stock was down 0.