Opinion: The AI Race Isn’t Just About Chips. It’s About Power.

March 20, 2026

The global competition around artificial intelligence is usually framed as a race for chips, models, and computing capacity. That is only part of the story. The binding constraint is increasingly electrical power. In the U.S., data centers already account for roughly 4% to 5% of electricity use, and EPRI projects that figure could rise to 9% to 17% by 2030 as AI deployment accelerates.

First Name*
Last Name*
Email Address*
Address*
ZIP Code
Phone Number
What tea publication would you like to subscribe to*
- Select All
- Afternoon TEA (blog sent every other Monday)
- TEA Takes (opinion column sent every Wednesday)
- Common Sense Energy (newsletter sent every Friday)
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Subscribe
- Subscribe to our weekly energy newsletter
CAPTCHA

Paid for by The Empowerment Alliance