How AI is forcing Big Tech into the energy business
People hate data centers. People love using AI. AI runs in data centers. Make that make sense.
Nearly half of American adults have now used ChatGPT, and AI is being integrated into everything we do. But the physical infrastructure required to run all that AI is causing public outrage. About 71 percent of Americans say they don’t want an AI data center in their backyard.
Communities are fighting back against proposed projects, raising concerns about land use, water consumption and, perhaps most of all, electricity costs. Politicians have noticed and now they’re running on it.
Data centers have somehow become a rare 2026 campaign issue capable of making candidates on both sides of the aisle sound alike. Proposed projects are facing tougher scrutiny, new regulations, and many projects have been stalled due to public opposition and legal battles.
But beneath the political fight over data centers is a much bigger story. America’s AI ambitions are colliding with America’s electrical grid.
The Power Problem
Data centers consumed about 4.4 percent of U.S. electricity in 2023, and now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates they could account for roughly 12 percent by 2030. That’s a staggering increase in seven short years. Tech companies are realizing the public electrical grid simply cannot power the AI products they’re building.
Now, the AI race has shifted from securing chips to generating the electricity needed to power them. To solve this problem, tech companies are locking up long-term power contracts, financing new energy generation and investing in new ways to produce their own electricity.
Big Tech and the Energy Race
The scramble for electricity has become so intense that at least 46 U.S. data centers are planning to build their own power plants for a combined generating capacity of 56 gigawatts (GW). For those who don’t do gigawatt math, that’s roughly the amount Germany consumes in a year. Yes, the entire country for an entire year.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have collectively backed everything from solar farms to natural-gas plants. Google parent Alphabet went even further, spending $4.75 billion in late 2025 to acquire Intersect, an energy developer specializing in wind, solar, and battery technology. Intersect expects to have 10.8 GW of power projects operating or under development by 2028.
And Big Tech isn’t picky about where their electrons come from either. It’s turning over every rock looking for round the clock power.
That brings us to nuclear.
Reactors are the Reaction
Data centers don’t sleep, and nuclear reactors don’t either. So, AI companies are giving nuclear power something it hasn’t had in decades, customers with very deep pockets and enormous appetites for reliable, 24/7 power. This renewed interest — and massive investment — is accelerating the development of next-generation nuclear technology.
Sam Altman saw this coming and bet on nuclear technology long before today’s data center explosion. He began backing fusion startup Helion in 2015 and then invested $375 million of his own money in the company in 2021, a year before ChatGPT was released. Then in 2023, Microsoft signed an agreement to purchase electricity from Helion, gambling that the company can successfully commercialize fusion power.
In 2024, Google signed a 500-megawatt (MW) agreement with Kairos Power to power their data centers in Tennessee and Alabama. Kairos Power’s reactor design uses molten fluoride salt instead of water for cooling and ceramic-coated TRISO fuel designed to withstand extreme temperatures. The Tennessee project broke ground earlier this year.
Later in 2024, there were more tech energy deals. Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement to purchase power from Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 and Amazon backed X-energy’s small modular reactor (SMR) technology with a $500M commitment.
And the investments go on and on.
But perhaps one of the most interesting developments is happening in a small Wyoming town where Bill Gates-backed TerraPower is building something the U.S. has never had before: a commercial-scale advanced nuclear power plant. Its Natrium reactor replaces the water used in conventional reactors with liquid sodium and pairs the reactor with a massive energy-storage system to the tune of 345-MW. In March 2026, it became the first commercial-scale advanced nuclear reactor ever granted a construction permit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
And Meta wants more of them. In January, the company struck a deal with TerraPower to help develop as many as eight Natrium reactors, potentially supplying 2.8 GW of continuous nuclear generation.
And the experimentation doesn’t stop there. Big Tech is betting big, but not on a single technology. It’s placing bets across the board.
Wind. Solar. Batteries. Natural gas. Existing nuclear plants. SMRs. New nuclear technology. Maybe eventually even fusion. If someone can reliably produce electrons, somebody in Silicon Valley wants to talk. That changes the data-center debate considerably.
The AI industry is shifting from being the country’s fastest-growing electricity customers to companies reshaping the energy infrastructure itself.
What Does This Mean for the Public Power Grid?
Being the eternal optimist, I think it’s possible that this extraordinary amount of money pouring into AI could finance an equally extraordinary expansion of America’s energy infrastructure. Multi-year energy contracts could give the financial infusion to build new nuclear plants and add more capacity with renewables and battery technology. Then when the energy projects are complete, data centers could possibly disconnect from the grid protecting existing customers bottom line.
But let’s be real. We’re talking about Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman. These tech bros have already proven they can’t be trusted with the American public’s wellbeing. Of course, they’re playing nice right now with all that political backlash blocking their data center expansion — but what happens when AI becomes deeply entrenched in the North American power grid and Big Tech owns Big Energy?
Does Big Energy Become Big Oil 2.0?
What if Big Energy controls the energy industry just like Big Oil does today? Will it mirror the same corrupt lobbying operations, political influence, tax incentives, and regulation manipulation that we see with Big Oil today?
I’m afraid the only difference will be that the next energy war won’t be fought over a shipping route in the Middle East.
Thanks for reading and if you have a question, please leave a comment.
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