Artificial intelligence's demand for electricity is set to rise by as much as ten times the current need in the next two years, according to a report from the International Energy Agenc y.The AI server industry is dominated by the tech firm Nvidia, with approximately a 95% market share, according to the IEA's Electricity 2024 report. In 2023, the company shipped 100,000 AI-dedicated servers, which consume more than 7 terawatt-hours of electricity each year — around the total electricity used in a year by Tanzania or Albania. By 2026, that amount will increase by ten times, putting its needs more on par with the electricity needs of Colombia or Austria.AI servers use substantially more power than a traditional data server. A typical Google search uses about 0.3 watt-hours of electricity; a ChatGPT query, meanwhile, uses almost 10 times as much, at 2.9 watt-hours per request.The burst in AI electricity consumption will go hand in hand with a leap in overall data center power use over the coming years. There are currently more than 8,000 data centers around the world, according to the IEA report, with most of those located in the U.S. (33%), Europe (16%) and China (10%).In 2022, data centers accounted for about 4% of the U.S. electricity demand; that will jump to 6% by 2026. In Europe, data centers used just below 100 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022, also about 4% of European Union demand; that will jump by 50% to 150 terawatt-hours by 2026.
