$580 billion will be spent on data centers, more than on oil production

580 billion dollars will be spent on building data centers this year. That’s more than on exploring new oil fields. 40 billion less will go there. The AI boom has in just a few years reversed the balance of investments in the global economy.

These figures are provided by the International Energy Agency in its report. And then the picture becomes even more dramatic. By the end of the decade, energy consumption of AI-oriented data centers will grow 5 times. This will exceed the current energy consumption of all data centers by 2 times.

According to the agency’s estimates, the main increase in energy consumption will fall on the US. They will get half of this magnitude. The remaining increase will be distributed between Europe and China. Half of the centers under construction are designed to consume more than 200 megawatts. Mainly new data centers are being built next to existing ones, in close proximity to cities with populations over 1 million people.

The shortage of electricity sources for such facilities is felt in many cases. And components for building energy infrastructure are also becoming scarce goods. Slowing down the modernization process for AI needs.

It turns out that AI is not just changing technologies. It’s rebuilding global energy infrastructure faster than anyone could have assumed.