TSI’s Scott Clayton has identified six stand-out U.S. and Canadian companies meeting two critical demands of the modern economy: they’re building keeping artificial intelligence (AI) datacentres as well as helping run them, as well as rewarding shareholders with sustainable dividends. As featured in our Globe and Mail exclusive, our 12-point Dividend Sustainability Rating System highlights stocks with the strength, consistency, and cash flow durability that defensive investors seek.
These leaders span the energy and infrastructure value chain by supplying the construction, power, and critical hardware that make AI’s massive electricity appetite possible. From industrial turbines to advanced transformers, from datacentre construction expertise to digital infrastructure systems, each company demonstrates the financial discipline and innovation needed to capture this once-in-a-generation industrial transformation.
Our screening process focused on firms directly benefiting from the surge in AI datacentre investments. These are companies generating dependable income even as they scale to meet record electricity demand. Though yields are modest, but that reflects their extraordinary stock performance and the unprecedented growth driving this new wave of AI infrastructure building.
Excerpt from theglobeandmail.com, March 5, 2026
Companies working to satisfy the electricity demands of artificial intelligence (AI) datacentres, while offering their own shareholders sustainable dividends.
U.S. President Donald Trump met this week with the heads of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other major AI players as they formally pledged to keep their power generation costs from trickling through to consumers’ electricity bills.
Those plans likely involve AI players partnering with energy generation companies to isolate their power needs from power grids focused on serving the public.
The astronomical costs associated with building and supplying AI datacentres with the electricity they need represents a boon for firms providing construction and operational inputs.
With this search, we’re looking for U.S. and Canadian players with the financial strength to reward investors with sustainable and rising income. We’ll then apply our TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System. It awards points to a stock based on key factors:
- One point for five years of continuous dividend payments
- Two points for more than five
- Two points if it has raised the payment in the past five years
- One point for management’s commitment to dividends
- One point for operating in non-cyclical industries
- One point for limited exposure to foreign currency rates and freedom from political interference
- Two points for a strong balance sheet, including manageable debt and adequate cash
- Two points for a long-term record of positive earnings and cash flow sufficient to cover dividend payments
- One point for an industry leader
[ofie_ad]
Companies with 10 to 12 points have the most secure dividends, or the highest sustainability. Those with seven to nine points have above average sustainability; average sustainability, four to six points; and below average sustainability, one to three points.
6 AI dividend powerhouses revealed
Caterpillar Inc. (with a 0.8% yield), based in Irving, Texas, is a leading maker of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and more. The company’s power and energy business serves the fast-growing AI datacentre segment. Hammond Power Solutions Inc. (0.6%), headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, focuses on magnetic transformer design and manufacturing. The company has agreed to buy AEG Power Solutions, which makes high-reliability power supply systems for AI datacentres.
Connecticut-based Emcor Group Inc. (0.2%) is a specialty contractor that builds, services, and operates critical infrastructure, including datacentres. Eaton Corporation plc (1.2%) is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, but its operational headquarters are in Ohio. The power management company serves the burgeoning datacentre market.
Vertiv Holdings Co. (0.1%), based in Ohio, manufactures digital infrastructure for datacentres, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments; and Quanta Services Inc. (0.1%) is a construction contractor heavily involved in building, upgrading, and maintaining datacentre electrical infrastructure.
Note that the yields on these stocks are low. That mostly reflects their big gains over the last couple of years as the number of AI datacentres balloons.
Scott Clayton, MBA, is senior analyst for TSI Network and associate editor of TSI Dividend Advisor.
