Data centers could take a fifth of U.S. power by 2035

BloombergNEF now expects data centers to consume a fifth of all U.S. electricity by 2035, four times today's share, with capacity climbing toward roughly 200 gigawatts over the decade. About half of that is for AI training and inference. The forecast is 83% higher than the one the same firm published in December, and it is not alone: EPRI more than doubled its 2024 estimate, and S&P Global raised its projection by over a third between October and April. The revisions track the pace of new AI datacenter construction.

The strain is regional as much as national. BloombergNEF projects that the PJM grid, which runs from Virginia to Illinois, could send 34% of its electricity to data centers, and that ERCOT in Texas could commit 22% of generating capacity to them. By 2033 the U.S. is expected to host 64% of the world's AI chips measured by power demand. Globally, data centers built through 2033 could add about 1,935 terawatt-hours of annual demand, close to what India uses in a year. The full report is covered at techcrunch.com.

Why it matters

If you live in the PJM or ERCOT footprint, these projections are a direct signal about your future power bills and grid reliability, not an abstract industry stat. For anyone planning AI infrastructure, the repeated upward revisions suggest siting and power contracts, not chips, will be the binding constraint.