By Jennifer Hiller | The Wall Street Journal
Tech companies in the AI race need power, and lots of it. They aren’t waiting around for the archaic U.S. power grid to catch up.
In West Texas, natural-gas-fired power generation is under construction as part of the $500 billion Stargate project from OpenAI and Oracle ORCL 0.82%increase; green up pointing triangle. Gas turbines are in use at Colossus 1 and 2, the massive data centers Elon Musk’s xAI is building in Memphis, Tenn. More than a dozen Equinix EQIX -0.25%decrease; red down pointing triangle data centers across the country are using fuel cells for power.
With the push for AI dominance at warp speed, the “Bring Your Own Power” boom is a quick fix for the gridlock of trying to get on the grid. It’s driving an energy Wild West that is reshaping American power.
Most tech titans would be happy to trade their DIY sourcing for the ability to plug into the electric grid. But supply-chain snarls and permitting challenges are complicating everything, and the U.S. isn’t building transmission infrastructure or power plants fast enough to meet the sudden surge in demand for electricity.
