Electricity consumption of data centers will increase 4 times

AI-driven demand will quadruple electricity consumption of data centers by 2035. One-fifth of the electricity produced in the United States is expected to go to data centers. a').click(); event.preventDefault();"> See Full Size The rapid increase in artificial intelligence investments brings the energy needs of data centers to record levels. According to a new report from BloombergNEF, by 2035 electricity consumption of data centers will increase approximately four times from today's level.

Thus, data centers alone will consume approximately one-fifth of the electricity produced in the USA. According to the report, the growth in the need for artificial intelligence computing in the next 10 years will increase data center capacity to approximately 200 gigawatts. Approximately half of this capacity will be used for training and inference processes of artificial intelligence models.

By 2033, 64 percent of the world's artificial intelligence chips, based on power consumption, are expected to be in the United States. a').click(); event.preventDefault();"> See Full Size BloombergNEF also increased its electricity demand forecast for 2035 by 83 percent compared to the forecast it shared in December. Similarly, EPRI and S&P also revised upward their estimates for the energy needs of data centers.

On the other hand, it is stated that most of the new data centers will create additional load on existing electricity networks. It is expected that 34 percent of the electricity produced in the PJM Interconnection region, one of the largest electricity networks in the USA, and 22 percent of the production capacity in the ERCOT region covering Texas, will be allocated to data centers. Although the USA is expected to maintain its leadership in artificial intelligence infrastructure, data center investments will not slow down in other parts of the world. According to BloombergNEF, if the use of artificial intelligence becomes aggressively widespread, data centers will create an additional electricity demand of 1,935 terawatt-hours globally by 2033. This amount indicates a level almost equivalent to India's annual electricity consumption.