More Power To You – And To The Datacenters

Datacenters are consuming electricity at a rapidly accelerating rate, and their power demand is growing much faster than global electricity generation. Datacenter power consumption is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 20.8 percent between 2024 and 2030, while worldwide electricity consumption is only expected to grow at 3 percent annually, causing datacenters' share of global power consumption to rise from 1.3 percent to 3.3 percent. This matters because it means datacenters will increasingly compete for limited electrical resources at a time when many hyperscalers and AI model builders are rapidly expanding their facilities. The situation parallels earlier concerns about datacenter power consumption after the Dot-Com Boom, though efficiency improvements and architectural innovations previously helped avoid worst-case scenarios.