America’s technology giants, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, have in recent months announced plans to spend over $600 billion on AI in 2026 alone.
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.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Trump, who has championed U.S. AI growth, said tech companies "have the obligation to provide for their own power needs."
The investment boom wave has already fuelled unease among some investors about the profitability of this strategy.
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.
