AI Revolution Drives Huge Natural Gas Boom

A boom in artificial intelligence (AI) investments now drives the United States electricity market. New data centers and upgrades to existing data centers are creating a vast demand for power. However, major AI firms are opting for natural gas plants to provide electrical power, rather than renewable energy.

Since ChatGPT released their conversational AI chatbot in November of 2022, the world of artificial intelligence has exploded. ChatGPT showed that machines can learn the complexities of human language and interaction. Within five days, the chatbot had attracted over one million users. ChatGPT ushered in the modern AI revolution, producing trillions of dollars of investment in the US and around the world.

Artificial intelligence uses vast amounts of computing power and databases with trillions of parameters to solve problems and make predictions. Generational AI can create text, images, music, and videos. These capabilities require enormous data centers filled with thousands of servers using high-speed graphics processing units (GPUs).

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and other firms are investing billions to build new data centers and to upgrade existing facilities. According to USA Datacenters, America had fewer than 2,700 data centers at the start of 2024. Now, about 3,900 data centers are operating, an increase of more than 40 percent in 18 months.