LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Big Tech’s race to dominate artificial intelligence may soon hit a nasty road bump as U.S. electricity grids struggle to keep pace with the big-spending hyperscalers.
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They have reason to be worried, as the ambitious U.S. AI expansion plans are likely to be hobbled by severe power-infrastructure bottlenecks, including turbine shortages, slow grid expansion and regulatory red tape.
Data centers used for AI model training and deployment require enormous amounts of energy for processing and cooling. The largest U.S. sites consume over a gigawatt (GW) of continuous load, enough power to supply up to 850,000 homes.
The planned rapid build-out of these electricity-hungry facilities, often in remote locations, will frequently require the construction of independent energy plants powered by gas, renewables or nuclear technologies.
Energy consultancy Cleanview has already identified 46 data centers that plan to build their own power plants, primarily with gas-fired generation. Their combined 56 GW of capacity represents around 30% of all planned U.S. data-center capacity, the consultancy said.
And soon developing independent power systems may not be a choice but a requirement.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump, who has championed U.S. AI growth, said tech companies
US AI boom faces electric shock
