{"slug": "gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026", "title": "Gartner: Data center electricity consumption to grow 26% in 2026", "summary": "Gartner projects global data center electricity consumption will reach 565 terawatt hours in 2026, a 26% increase from 2025, driven by AI-optimized servers that will account for 31% of that power use. The U.S. will consume 36% of the total, with dedicated AI data centers using one-third of that amount. Gartner warns that grid supply will be insufficient by 2030, urging infrastructure leaders to prioritize efficiency and secure grid access.", "body_md": "Power consumption worldwide for [data centers](https://www.networkworld.com/article/4117584/power-shortages-carbon-capture-and-ai-automation-whats-ahead-for-data-centers-in-2026.html) is projected to grow to 565 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2026, up 26% from 447 TWh in 2025, with [AI-oriented data centers](https://www.neowin.net/news/these-are-the-biggest-ai-data-centers-owned-by-big-tech/) taking up an increasing amount of the pie.\n\nWorldwide data center [power demand](https://www.networkworld.com/article/4130979/energy-providers-seek-flexible-load-strategies-for-data-center-operations.html) is expected to rise 27% in 2026 and reach 133 gigawatts (GW), up from 105GW in 2025. It is projected to reach 291GW by 2030, which reflects the unprecedented scale and pace of GenAI boosting demand.\n\nThose figures consider variables like parts and supply shortages, delayed or cancelled data center projects, and the impact of the conflict with Iran, said [Linglan Wang,](https://www.linkedin.com/in/linglan-wang-98b64a30/) director analyst and lead economist at Gartner.\n\n[AI-optimized servers](https://www.networkworld.com/article/3835113/what-is-an-ai-server-why-artificial-intelligence-needs-specialized-systems.html) are a relatively new phenomenon but they have rapidly gained uh traditional data centers in terms of power use. Gartner estimates AI-optimized server adoption will account for 31% of data center power consumption in 2026, and that by 2027 their power consumption will surpass that of conventional servers.\n\n“Surging demand for compute-intensive AI workloads is driving unprecedented data center power growth, while AI capacity is now constrained by power availability, making data center power security the new battle ground for scaling and protecting margins in the global AI race,” said Wang in a statement.\n\nWang said of the 565TWh consumed this year, the U.S. will account for about 204TWh, or 36% of the total amount consumed. And of the 204TWh consumed this year, dedicated AI data centers will consume 68TWh, or one-third of the total. So in just five years, AI data centers have gone from zero to of the total power consumption in the US.\n\nNon-AI data center growth has been minimal by comparison.\n\nThe difference in growth of power consumption between conventional servers and AI-optimized servers is remarkable. Worldwide, conventional servers consumed 193 terawatt hours (TWh) of power in 2025 and are projected to rise 1.2% to 195 TWh in 2026 and another 2.4% in 2027 to 200 TWh This 3% basic growth will continue to 2030.\n\nNow compare that to the AI-optimized servers. They consumed 95 TWh of power in 2025, rose 84.2% to 175 TWh in 2026 and another 47.8% to 258 TWh in 2027. By 2030, Wang estimates AI-optimized servers will account for near half of all power consumed by data centers worldwide.\n\nWith data center power electricity consumption estimated to reach over 1,200TWh by 2030, grid supply will be insufficient to meet the demands of future data center construction, affecting all data center users.\n\n“Infrastructure and operations leaders must prioritize efficiency upgrades and secure grid access. They also need to invest in high-efficiency cooling systems and edge computing to mitigate power constraints and ensure sustainable, scalable growth,” Wang said.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026", "canonical_source": "https://www.networkworld.com/article/4193996/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026.html", "published_at": "2026-07-07 19:58:58+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-09 10:29:26.611295+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips"], "entities": ["Gartner", "Linglan Wang"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/gartner-data-center-electricity-consumption-to-grow-26-in-2026.jsonld"}}