Have you been reading Susana’s daily newsletter about the AI infrastructure market? You should; it’s a good read. Today, she leads with a story about a big new US data center. It is a massive one, in fact, at 7.65 GW, which is as big as data centers (and pollution permits) are allowed to get – in a part of the US where bigger is always better, and which likes to tell you so: Texas, which has emerged as a global data-center HQ. The first phase is scheduled for the first half of 2027, with 1 GW to go online in 2028; the rest (over 5 GW, at least) will be completed by 2031, she writes. It will consume as much coal-fired power as a not-insignificant percentage of an even bigger country than the US: about five percent of Canada’s dirty power. Susana and the team will be following with interest, of course. 

Elsewhere, and linked below, Susana has a story about how AI promises are outrunning AI realities – for enterprises, and therefore for consumers. Time to get real with all this expensive AI innovation and spadework, she says; time for the AI proofs to pay off in commercial benefits. Because consumer sentiment about power usage and power prices, air pollution and noise pollution, and massive layoffs across the global economy is starting to tell. “AI requires a flip-flop in the energy mix,” she writes. Data centers account for 14% of total energy used in the US; the share needs to go higher than 50% to expand AI, she says. It will take trillions of dollars of investments, and the public will not just sit around while their power bills spiral – unless there is proper payback.

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