Artificial intelligence is quietly turning data centers into some of the world’s biggest power users. Over the past year, these facilities used roughly 448 trillion watt‑hours of electricity, putting their energy needs in the same league as major economies.
That level of demand is not a one‑off event. Data centers are expected to need about 935 trillion watt‑hours by 2030, close to 3% of global electricity use. Put differently, if data centers were counted as a single country, their power demand would rank around sixth worldwide.
