Global electricity demand from data centres grew by 17 percent in 2025, in line with projections from the International Energy Agency. Electricity consumption from AI-focused data centres rose even faster, surging 50 percent over the same period as more computing capacity shifted toward AI training and inference workloads.

The IEA now projects that total electricity consumption from data centres will roughly double, climbing from about 485 terawatt-hours in 2025 to around 950 terawatt-hours by 2030. At that level, data centres would account for close to 3 percent of global electricity demand, up from a smaller share today.

Capital spending is scaling alongside that demand. The largest technology companies pushed data centre-related capital expenditure above 400 billion dollars in 2025, and that figure is expected to climb by another 75 percent in 2026 as AI infrastructure buildouts continue.

In the United States specifically, the expansion of data centres is projected to account for roughly half of all electricity demand growth through 2030, a larger share than any other single end use tracked by the agency. That growth is adding pressure to grid planning, generation capacity and transmission investment across major US power markets.

The figures underscore how quickly data centres have moved from a modest slice of global electricity use to one of the fastest-growing categories of demand, a shift that is reshaping utility investment plans and grid infrastructure priorities nationwide.

Source: International Energy Agency (IEA) -- https://www.iea.org/energy-system/buildings/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks