Artificial intelligence is greedier than entire countries – by 2035, U.S. data centers will consume more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined

The battle for leadership in artificial intelligence has reached fever pitch, with U.S. data centers expected to consume more power by 2035 natural gasMore than Germany and Japan combined. In the next ten years, data centers will become the second largest driver of demand growth natural gas After the export of LNG. According to Bloomberg, the facilities could consume about 500 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, double the amount predicted nine months ago.

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recent months Yuan✴, Microsoft, Google and Amazon Announced plans to build a new local gas power plant, independent of the unified energy system. By 2035, such projects will consume 82 to 96 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. However, such homegrown data centers account for only a small portion of overall demand growth.

It is expected that data centers connected to the universal energy grid will provide the energy sector with an additional 425 million cubic meters per day of natural gas consumption by the middle of the next decade. This is five times the expected demand growth for all other energy consumers combined. If this prediction proves to be correct, natural gas prices will rise significantly.

Today’s data center construction relies heavily on natural gas prices, which have been generally stable in recent years. But analysts say the combined impact of the artificial intelligence boom and increased LNG exports could cause prices to surge. Even if tech company balance sheets can withstand such a surge, utility customers may not be able to.

Additionally, there are negative climate consequences. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), burning one cubic meter of natural gas emits the equivalent of 2,100 grams of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during production, processing and distribution. The additional demand for data centers will generate more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases per day. This accounts for approximately 12% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions today.