The demand for computing power to handle artificial intelligence workloads is so high that Big Tech companies are on a mission to acquire more. In the first quarter of the year, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively invested $40 billion in data centers. This investment is geared towards addressing the growing need for processing power in AI projects. Meta, while not in the cloud business, also announced plans to spend $40 billion on capital expenditure this year for AI-related projects.
The trend of spending large sums of money on data center infrastructure is reminiscent of the energy industry’s appetite for capital expenditures. Data centers for AI processes require vast amounts of processing power, which translates to a heavy reliance on electricity. This has led to an increase in demand for electricity from utility companies like Dominion Energy. In fact, data center developers are now frequently requesting “several gigawatts” of electricity from Dominion, which has a total installed capacity of 34GW.
As companies continue to invest heavily in AI-related projects, we can expect to see more spending on data center infrastructure in the future. This trend highlights the importance of investing in renewable energy sources and energy-efficient technologies to meet the growing demand for electricity from these industries.
