BloombergNEF: US Data Centers to Burn More Gas Than Germany and Japan Combined by 2035
A BloombergNEF report projects US data centers will consume about 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035, nearly double its forecast from nine months earlier and more than Germany and Japan combined. Grid-connected facilities account for roughly 15 bcf/d of the growth, with onsite gas plants from Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon contributing 2.9–3.4 bcf/d. The buildout could raise gas prices for ratepayers and add roughly 1 million metric tons of daily greenhouse gas emissions, about 12% of current US totals.
Skynet Chance (+0.02%): A near-doubling of projected compute-driven energy demand in nine months indicates capability scaling is compounding faster than anticipated, indirectly raising risk from more powerful systems. The connection to control and alignment failures is indirect.
Skynet Date (-1 days): Massive committed energy and compute infrastructure through 2035 signals sustained acceleration of frontier training runs, pulling forward the arrival of highly capable systems.
AGI Progress (+0.03%): Doubling the energy forecast in under a year is a strong proxy signal that planned compute buildout — historically the dominant driver of capability gains — is expanding faster than the market expected.
AGI Date (-1 days): Locked-in power capacity removes a key physical bottleneck to scaling, though rising gas prices and ratepayer or climate backlash could partially throttle the buildout.
<< All AI news for September 15, 2026
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