US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds

When adding announced and pre-construction projects, the US is building nearly three times as much as its fellow global economic powerhouse. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The US has surged ahead of China in the building of new gas-fired power generation, largely to feed a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that is adding vast amounts of planet-heating emissions, a new analysis has found.

For decades, China’s rapid economic growth has seen it outpace the US in the addition of new gas power generation but a recent “frenzy” in datacenter construction for AI has reversed this, said Global Energy Monitor (Gem) in its new report.