Data centres could use one-fifth of all electricity generated in the United States by 2035, four times what they use today. The forecast comes from BloombergNEF, and it is driven almost entirely by artificial intelligence.

BloombergNEF expects AI compute to push data-centre capacity to nearly 200 gigawatts over the next decade, with about half for training and running AI models. By 2033, the US would host 64 per cent of AI chips by power demand.

The 2035 estimate is 83 per cent higher than BloombergNEF’s December forecast. EPRI has more than doubled its 2024 estimate, and S&P raised its forecast by over a third.

Most new data centres will plug into already strained grids. The PJM grid would devote 34 per cent of its electricity to data centres, and Texas’s ERCOT 22 per cent. Supply squeezes have pushed electricity prices up 76 per cent in a year.

The numbers show why power, not just chips, has become the binding constraint on the AI boom.