WSJ What’s News How The AI Race is Driving an Energy Wild West
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Oct 16, 2025 President Trump has green-lighted covert CIA operations in Venezuela, stirring tensions in the region. Meanwhile, the complexities of U.S.-India relations emerge as Modi pauses Russian oil purchases. In a unique twist, tech giants are grappling with a power shortage due to their insatiable AI energy needs, prompting them to build their own power plants. With the outdated U.S. power grid lagging behind, experts are questioning whether supply will ever catch up to the massive demand driven by AI innovations.
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Data Centers Will Dominate Power Demand
- AI data centers are creating huge new electricity demand that the current U.S. grid struggles to meet.
- By 2028 data centers could consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity, up from under 2% before 2020.
Supply Chain And Transmission Are The Bottlenecks
- The U.S. needs roughly 80 gigawatts of new power capacity a year but is building about 15 GW too few.
- Supply-chain bottlenecks for transformers and turbines and slow transmission buildouts are the main constraints.
Tech Firms Building Their Own Power
- Some tech firms are literally building on-site power plants as temporary bridges or permanent solutions.
- Examples include the Stargate project in West Texas and Elon Musk–backed projects in Memphis using onsite generation.