As the global race to advance artificial intelligence accelerates, technology leaders are now facing a new challenge that strikes at the very core of the digital revolution: energy.
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While companies like OpenAI and Microsoft have focused on securing high-performance chips and processors, they are beginning to realize that electricity itself may be the biggest barrier to sustaining AI’s explosive growth, according to TechCrunch.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the problem is no longer a shortage of chips, but rather the scarcity of energy and the ability to build data centers quickly enough to meet surging computing demand.
“We have chips ready,” Nadella said, “but we don’t have buildings equipped to power them.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, added that the shift toward cheaper energy could cause major economic disruptions, given the long-term contracts companies have already signed to secure electricity.
Altman explained that the computing cost per unit of intelligence is dropping at an astonishing rate—by as much as fortyfold per year—making it extremely difficult to expand infrastructure fast enough to keep up.
To address this, Altman has invested in nuclear and fusion energy through companies such as Oklo and Helion, as well as in solar energy ventures like Exowatt. Yet, these technologies remain largely experimental, and building new gas or nuclear power plants can take years.
In the meantime, tech companies are increasingly turning to solar energy as the fastest, most scalable, and most environmentally friendly option. Solar technologies share similarities with the semiconductor industry, as they are modular units built on silicon substrates that can be combined into massive arrays—making them as expandable as cloud computing itself.
However, the issue of time remains unresolved: constructing a new power plant or data center can take years, while AI demand can surge within months.
Altman warns that growing efficiency won’t necessarily reduce total energy consumption. Instead, it may increase overall demand, a phenomenon known as the Jevons Paradox—where every gain in efficiency opens up new applications and accelerates overall resource use.
