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AI boom could make data center electricity use 10% of total U.S. electricity consumption by 2030

2026-09-15 00:17:34

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The U.S. AI boom is rapidly turning into a "power story"

Moody's estimates that by 2030, U.S. data centers may require approximately US$110 billion in investment to add 45 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity. Of this, more than 30 GW may come from natural gas, which potentially requires an additional 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas supply per day.

This scale highlights an increasingly serious constraint in the development of artificial intelligence: building more data centers increasingly relies on finding a reliable enough source of power.

AI data centers need more power

In the past few years, the focus of the artificial intelligence industry has been mainly on GPUs, servers and semiconductor companies. Today, electricity supply has become another key bottleneck.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that as artificial intelligence and cloud computing workloads expand, global data center electricity consumption will approach 950 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2030, almost double the 2025 level.

Natural gas may become a major beneficiary of the AI industry

AI data centers require round-the-clock power supply, which makes stable and reliable power generation capabilities particularly valuable. This has also made natural gas occupy an increasingly important position. According to S&P Global, more than 80% of announced "behind-the-meter" power projects serving U.S. data centers rely on natural gas.

McKinsey also estimates that electricity generation in the United States and Canada may require an additional 4.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas demand per day by 2030, with data centers accounting for more than half of that growth.

As a result, the impact of AI investment themes has reached far beyond Nvidia and other chip makers. We have previously discussed AI infrastructure stocks in non-semiconductor areas, covering utilities, cooling systems, electrical equipment and other companies that will benefit from this expansion.

Will data centers really consume 10% of America's electricity?

Relevant estimates are gradually approaching reality. Citi predicts that by 2030, data centers could account for about 10.9% of total U.S. electricity consumption, up from about 4.5% in 2023. This will make AI infrastructure one of the largest sources of new power demand in the United States.

Indicators Estimates Power Capacity of Newly Built Data Center 45 GW Investment required US$110 billion Potential natural gas production capacity 30+ GW Additional natural gas demand Approximately 4 billion cubic feet per day Data center share of U.S. electricity About 10% by 2030

We have previously analyzed who is funding this AI data center boom. In the next phase, the focus may increasingly turn to who can truly power them.

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