Data centers expected to use 4x more electricity by 2035
A new report from BloombergNEF predicts that U.S. data center electricity consumption will quadruple by 2035 due to the rapid expansion of AI compute capacity. This surge is expected to strain electrical grids and drive up energy costs significantly.
Why it matters
The massive energy requirements of AI infrastructure pose a significant challenge to grid stability and climate goals.
Data centers are expected to use one-fifth of the electricity generated in the U.S. by 2035, four times that of today, according to a new report from BloombergNEF .
A surge in AI compute will push data center capacity to nearly 200 gigawatts over the next decade, the report predicts. Nearly half of that capacity will be devoted to training and inference, and most of that will remain concentrated in the U.S. By 2033, the country will host 64% of AI chips by power demand.
Based on previous forecasts, those figures could be conservative.
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