The U.S. has surpassed China in energy investments for the first time
The rapid growth of data centers for artificial intelligence has led to a sharp increase in demand for gas turbines and fossil-fuel power plants, significantly shifting the balance of investment in the global energy market.
This year, U.S. investment in fossil-fuel power plants exceeded China’s for the first time in many years.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. plans to spend up to $50 billion on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants in 2026. This is approximately $3 billion more than in China.
The main factor behind this growth is said to be the active construction of infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
Modern data centers require enormous amounts of electricity—ranging from 1 gigawatt to several gigawatts, which is comparable to the consumption of a large city.
That is why companies are placing massive orders for gas turbines, which can quickly provide a stable power supply.
In the first quarter of 2026, U.S. companies had already ordered about 20 gigawatts of gas turbines.
Power equipment manufacturers are operating at full capacity due to demand from tech giants such as Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta.
GE Vernova alone received an order backlog of $18 billion in just one quarter.
At the same time, equipment prices are rising sharply: the cost of gas turbines has risen from about $800 per kilowatt to over $2,500.
Analysts explain that the demand is driven not only by the development of AI but also by the overall competition for energy resources.
“Gas equipment manufacturers are swamped with orders as tech giants compete for leadership in the data center sector,” noted Rystad Energy analyst Reid Ramdatsingh.
Despite global trends toward “green” energy, both the U.S. and China continue to invest billions in fossil fuels.
The U.S. is ramping up gas-fired power generation thanks to its large natural gas reserves, while China continues to build coal-fired power plants.
Experts note that this creates additional challenges for global energy security.
The rapid construction of data centers is already affecting the U.S. economy, causing inflationary pressure and rising equipment costs.
Since components for energy infrastructure are used across various industries, rising prices could spread to other sectors of the economy.
This is reported by the Financial Times.
As a reminder, Microsoft plans to allocate approximately $80 billion in fiscal year 2025 to develop data centers for training artificial intelligence models.
Tesla says it will build new “first-of-their-kind” data centers. The automaker is hiring staff for this purpose and acquiring some existing data centers.
