By 2027 the US will need up 60 gigawatts to power roughly 3,000 data centers, and it has enough natural gas to do so, but ESG policies and logistics are preventing that from happening, according to a Goldman Sachs executive at the Doha Forum in Qatar.
Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar during a session on “The Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence” over the weekend, Goldman Sachs president of global affairs Jared Cohen said that in order to meet AI demands, the US will need to step-up its energy output for data centers from 17 gigawatts last year to another 35 to 60 gigawatts of baseload power by 2027.
Goldman Sachs President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen, Doha Forum, December 2024
“There’s roughly 3,000 data centers in the US. Last year, the US required about 17 gigawatts of power to run those data centers […] By 2027 the US needs to bring another 35 to 60 gigawatts of additional baseload power”
“For these AI workloads, the data centers that are required to power them are ultra-high-density, and they require a single concentrated source of power,” said Cohen.
“Intermittent power like wind and solar can’t be used for it; it requires 24/7 power. What it means is you need baseload power, so you think coal, nuclear, natural gas,” he added.
“The US actually has enough natural gas to do this, but […] it’s prohibitively fraught because it has to go through all of these different political jurisdictions that are pushing back for ESG reasons“
Goldman Sachs President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen, Doha Forum, December 2024
Cohen said that the US had enough natural gas at the present to meet the AI demand of 35 to 60 gigawatts of power, but that money, logistics, and ESG policies were preventing that from happening.
“The US actually has enough natural gas to do this, but it’s in North Dakota and it’s in all these other places, but it’s prohibitively expensive to transport it to where the data centers need to be built or are located, and it’s prohibitively fraught because it has to go through all of these different political jurisdictions that are pushing back for ESG reasons,” he said.
“This is going to blow us way off target on sustainability targets. You’re smiling, but we all know it. Everyone on this stage”
CNN Anchor and Correspondent Julia Chatterley, Doha Forum, December 2024
Recognizing that renewables alone can’t power AI data centers, World Economic Forum (WEF) president Børge Brende told the same panel that wind and solar should still be deployed, and that natural gas, nuclear, and hydro should be used as backups.
“You have to have access to competitive, cheap electricity. Hopefully, I think it should be renewables, but you have to have a backup being hydro, nuclear will take time, but of course with gas […] is of course a lot more preferred than if it’s coal,” said Brende.
“They’re now talking about data centers that are going to be one gigawatt — that powers a city! There’s one tech company that I spoke to the CEO last week who said, ‘Right now with all their data centers is about five gigawatts; by 2030 they need 30 gigawatts.’ Thirty! The amount of power that’s needed to use AI has huge impact on society”
Larry Fink, WEF Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy Development, 2024
The estimated energy demand for AI data centers increases with every passing month.
Speaking at the WEF’s Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last April, Fink told the panel on “Investing Amid Global Fracture” that intermittent wind and solar were not going to cut it when it came to powering AI data centers.
Eight months after Fink’s remarks that 30 gigawatts would be required by 2030, that figure has now jumped to between 35 and 60 gigawatts in a shorter time frame, by 2027.
While unelected globalists push expensive, unreliable renewables like wind and solar on the rest of the population in the name of saving the planet and net-zero policies, the elites are saying that AI data centers will require enough energy to power dozens of cities.
Image Source: Screenshot of Goldman Sachs President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen, Doha Forum YouTube
