AI Expansion Highlights Dangers of America’s Aging Power Grid

U.S. energy consumption has hit record highs in lockstep with data center expansion.

An architectural rendering of Fermi America’s proposed 5,770-acre data center complex near Amarillo, Texas. Fermi America

America’s artificial intelligence boom is colliding with an older, slower-moving entity: the nation’s aging electrical grid.

From Virginia’s data center corridor to multistate electricity markets, analysts, government agencies, and AI insiders say the scramble to handle technology’s expanding power demands will be an uphill battle.