AMERICA'S AI AMBITIONS COLLIDE WITH A NUCLEAR POWER REALITY

The race to dominate artificial intelligence is no longer just about algorithms and semiconductors.

- 

It is increasingly about electricity. As Al data centers multiply across the United States, policymakers and energy analysts are warning that America’s power infrastructure — particularly its nuclear capacity — may not be growing fast enough to support the next phase of technological expansion.

Al workloads, especially large-scale model training and inference, demand enormous and continuous power. Hyperscale data centers already consume more electricity than many small cities, and projections suggest that demand could accelerate sharply through the end of the decade. Energy officials say that without firm, carbon-free baseload generation, the U.S. risks supply bottlenecks that could slow Al deployment and weaken its competitive position against China and other rivals.

AI DATA CENTERS ARE DRIVING SURGING POWER DEMAND

Electricity demand in the U.S. had remained relatively flat for years, even declining in some regions due to efficiency gains. That trend has reversed. Data centers tied to Al, cloud computing, and advanced manufacturing are now pushing grid operators to forecast meaningful growth for the first time in over a decade.