Data Centers to Consume 4x More Electricity by 2035, BloombergNEF Reports
Original: Data centers expected to use 4x more electricity by 2035
Why This Matters
AI-driven data center growth is fundamentally reshaping U.S. and global energy infrastructure planning and grid investment.
A BloombergNEF report projects U.S. data centers will account for one-fifth of national electricity generation by 2035—four times current levels—driven by AI compute demand pushing capacity to nearly 200 gigawatts. The 2035 demand estimate is 83% higher than BloombergNEF's own December forecast.
According to a new BloombergNEF report, U.S. data centers are on track to consume 20% of the country's electricity by 2035, up from roughly 5% today. The surge is attributed primarily to AI training and inference workloads, which will account for nearly half of the projected ~200 GW of data center capacity. The U.S. is expected to host 64% of AI chips by power demand by 2033.
BloombergNEF's revised 2035 electricity demand estimate is 83% higher than its December 2025 projection. Other forecasters have also raised their outlooks: EPRI more than doubled its 2024 estimate, and S&P's forecast rose over a third between October and April.
Grid strain is a growing concern. The PJM Interconnection (Virginia to Illinois) will see 34% of its electricity flow to data centers; ERCOT (Texas) will devote 22% of generating capacity. Electricity prices in PJM have risen 76% over the past year. Utility American Electric Power has threatened to exit PJM amid the congestion, even as data centers represented 38% of charges in PJM's most recent capacity auction.
Globally, aggressive AI adoption could generate 1,935 TWh of new electricity demand by 2033—roughly equivalent to India's annual consumption.