Source: Executive summary – Energy and AI – Analysis – IEA
In the past few years, AI has gone from an academic pursuit to an industry with trillions of dollars of market capitalisation and venture capital at stake. The market capitalisation of AI-related firms in the S&P 500 has grown by around USD 12 trillion since 2022. While there are several uncertainties about its uptake and impact, AI’s rapid development and huge potential have made it central to corporate strategies, economic policies and geopolitics.
However, there is no AI without energy; at the same time, AI has the potential to transform the energy sector. Affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity supply will be a crucial determinant of AI development, and countries that can deliver the energy needed at speed and scale will be best placed to benefit. Training and deploying AI models takes place in large and power-hungry data centres. A typical AI-focused data centre consumes as much electricity as 100 000 households, but the largest ones under construction today will consume 20 times as much.
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