Mitsubishi takes over $7.5 billion in U.S. natural gas fields from Aethon, deepening Japanese bet on LNG and the AI boom

Mitsubishi officially became one of the largest natural gas producers in the U.S. on Wednesday, following a $7.5 billion deal that positions the Japanese giant to benefit from the surge in gas exports—especially to Japan—as well as from the AI data center boom that increasingly thirsts for more gas-fired power.

Mitsubishi closed on its largest acquisition ever July 15, scooping up the assets of Dallas-based Aethon Energy. Little-known Aethon was the nation’s third-largest, privately held energy producer in the U.S., and the biggest focused exclusively on natural gas.

The $7.5 billion deal continues the rapidly rising trend of Asian nations, especially the Japanese, investing directly in U.S. natural gas production, primarily in the Haynesville Shale region in northern Louisiana and eastern Texas that’s particularly gassy and geographically close to growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports hubs along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Aethon was heavily concentrated there.

Foreign countries from Europe to Asia to Australia have invested massively in U.S. LNG infrastructure, but doing so keeps them susceptible to the whims of volatile gas pricing. Buying the gas production—the land from which the natural gas is extracted as well as the processing facilities—gives t...