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111 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 10h \ on: 164 GW: AI Power Requests Flood Texas Grid AI
Skynet would watch The Matrix and know where to get that energy.
AI data centres in China pay 2-3 cents/kw/h.
In the US its 8-9 cents/kw/h.
There will be massive power shortage and rolling power cuts in the USA if projected AI data centre demand occurs.
The USA cannot build enough power to run projected AI demand.
'China now has the biggest power grid the world has ever seen. Between 2010 and 2024, its power production increased by more than the rest of the world combined. Last year, China generated more than twice as much electricity as the U.S. Some Chinese data centers are now paying less than half what American ones pay for electricity.
“In China, electricity is our competitive advantage,” Liu Liehong, head of China’s National Data Administration, said in March.
The push for power supremacy is transforming remote expanses of Inner Mongolia, a Texas-like landscape of wide-open spaces now dotted with thousands of wind turbines and crisscrossed by transmission lines. They provide electricity for what officials describe as a new “cloud valley of the grasslands,” with more than 100 data centers in operation or on the way.
That is just the beginning. Morgan Stanley forecasts that China will spend some $560 billion on grid projects in the five years through 2030, up 45% from the previous five years. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2030, China will have about 400 gigawatts of spare capacity, about three times the world’s expected data-center power demand at that time.
The U.S.-China “electron gap,” as OpenAI now calls it, has become a major preoccupation for American tech leaders. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has said his company is worried it won’t have enough power to run the enormous number of chips it is buying. Some companies want Washington to do more to cut red tape or provide financial support to modernize America’s power grid.
In the next three years, U.S. data centers could face an electricity shortfall of 44 gigawatts, the equivalent of New York state’s summertime capacity, Morgan Stanley has forecast, posing a “daunting challenge” for the nation’s AI ambitions.
In China, inexpensive power has helped AI companies, including DeepSeek, develop high-quality AI models more cheaply than U.S. competitors. It also has helped China overcome challenges posed by its inferior domestic computer chips. By bundling those chips together in large numbers, China could come close to matching the performance of advanced chips made by Nvidia, but the process requires much more electricity.
China now has 3.75 terawatts of power-generation capacity, more than double U.S. capacity. It has 34 nuclear reactors under construction, according to the World Nuclear Association, and nearly 200 others planned or proposed. In Tibet, China is building the world’s largest hydropower project, which could produce three times the power of its Three Gorges Dam.'
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