{"slug": "bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035", "title": "BloombergNEF forecasts US data centers to consume 20% of electricity by 2035", "summary": "BloombergNEF projects US data centers will consume roughly 20% of the nation's electricity by 2035, up from about 5.9% today, driven by AI and crypto mining demand. The forecast pegs US data center power demand at 106 GW by 2035, a 36% increase from its April 2025 projection of 78 GW. Bitcoin miners like Core Scientific and Riot Platforms are pivoting to AI workloads, with some analysts estimating 20% of miners' capacity may shift by end of 2027.", "body_md": "# BloombergNEF forecasts US data centers to consume 20% of electricity by 2035\n\nThe explosive growth in AI and crypto mining demand is forcing a reckoning with America's power grid, and Bitcoin miners are quietly positioning themselves at the center of it.\n\nThe American power grid is about to get stress-tested like never before. BloombergNEF now projects that US data centers will consume roughly 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2035, up from about 5.9% today. That’s not a typo. One-fifth of all electricity in the country, sucked up by humming rows of servers.\n\nTo put that in perspective, BNEF’s latest forecast pegs US data center power demand at 106 GW by 2035. That figure represents a 36% increase from the firm’s own April 2025 projection of 78 GW.\n\n## The numbers behind the surge\n\nRight now, US data centers operate at around 40 GW of capacity, accounting for roughly 3.5% to 4% of total national electricity demand. BNEF’s base case scenario puts that share at approximately 8.6% by 2035.\n\nThe Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has modeled high-growth scenarios where data center electricity consumption could reach 10% to 20% of US demand by 2035. The key variable pushing toward the upper end of that range: cryptocurrency mining combined with AI-driven compute.\n\nNearly one-quarter of new data center projects in the pipeline exceed 500 MW in capacity.\n\n## Bitcoin miners pivot to AI infrastructure\n\nCompanies like Core Scientific and Riot Platforms have been strategically partnering with major tech firms, including AWS and Google, to retrofit their mining facilities for AI workloads. Bitcoin miners have secured approximately 6 GW of power capacity, with pipelines extending to 12 GW by 2027.\n\nSome analysts estimate that 20% of Bitcoin miners’ capacity may pivot toward AI workloads by the end of 2027.\n\nTexas provides the clearest example of this transition. The state’s grid operator, ERCOT, has seen data centers account for roughly 90% of large-load demand applications. Many of the sites that were originally built or planned for crypto mining are now being repurposed for AI-driven workloads.\n\n## What this means for crypto investors\n\nCore Scientific’s stock trajectory tells that story. The company emerged from bankruptcy and partnered with CoreWeave, an AI cloud computing firm, to convert mining capacity into AI hosting.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/bnef-us-data-centers-20-percent-electricity-2035/", "published_at": "2026-07-21 11:31:28+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-21 11:37:19.453828+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["BloombergNEF", "Core Scientific", "Riot Platforms", "AWS", "Google", "CoreWeave", "ERCOT", "Electric Power Research Institute"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bloombergnef-forecasts-us-data-centers-to-consume-20-of-electricity-by-2035.jsonld"}}