Data Centers' Electricity Demand to Double by 2026, Driven by AI and Crypto Mining

The surge in electricity consumption could be equivalent to adding an extra country's worth of demand, with the US and AI industry seeing significant increases.

Data centers, driven by AI and crypto mining, could double their electricity consumption by 2026, equivalent to adding an extra country's worth of electricity demand.
In 2022, data centers, cryptocurrencies, and AI made up around 2% of global electricity demand, using 460TWh of electricity.
The US, which has the most data centers and Bitcoin mining, is expected to see a rapid increase in data center electricity consumption, rising from 4% of US demand in 2022 to 6% by 2026.
AI's demand for electricity is set to rise by as much as ten times the current need in the next two years, with AI servers using substantially more power than traditional data servers.
Electricity demand for cryptocurrencies is expected to jump by 40% by 2026, despite some success stories with limiting crypto’s energy and environmental footprints.