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, illustrates its plans for 18 million-square-feet of AI data center development fueled by “the largest nuclear power complex in America” supported by “the nation's biggest combined-cycle natural gas project, solar power, and battery storage.” Fermi America

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

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