The oil market has been making headlines, but the real story may not be geopolitical—it could be structural. As artificial intelligence drives unprecedented electricity demand, the companies keeping the grid running look increasingly like the best long-term energy plays available right now.
Marc Lichtenfeld, Chief Income Strategist at the Oxford Club, makes the case that energy has quietly become the picks-and-shovels story of the AI era. Just as the merchants supplying gold rush miners often outpaced the prospectors, the energy companies fueling today's data centers may ultimately generate more durable returns than the technology names drawing all the attention. With U.S. electricity demand forecast to grow roughly 3.5% annually through 2030, Lichtenfeld sees three stocks positioned to benefit—regardless of where oil prices settle.
