Thirsty A.I. Data Centers Planned Throughout Drought-Stricken U.S. West
A new AIxEnergy analysis identifies 31 nonoperational data-center projects in constrained cooling-water territories across nine Western states. Their disclosed announced computing load totals 11.6 gigawatts.
The AI Boom Is Becoming a Credit Bet
AI financing has progressed from concentrated venture equity into a cross-asset financing system, while the market signals required to validate the buildout—utilization, cash generation, debt absorption and physical energization—remain unresolved.
Morgan Bazilian
The Moratorium Map: How the AI Boom Is Redrawing the Geography of Power and Permission
A new AIxEnergy dataset tracks 234 policy actions across 230 geographies, revealing how local governments, states and power systems are turning access to land and electricity into a negotiated form of permission.
Brandon Owens
The Climate Outside the Fence: Why cooling conditions belong in every AI data-center siting model
The International Energy Agency’s July 2026 Electricity Mid-Year Update identifies expanding data-center capacity as one of the structural forces accelerating global power demand. The IEA expects worldwide electricity consumption to grow 3.6 percent in 2026 and 3.8 percent in 2027, reaching approximately 30,700 terawatt-hours. Its more focused April assessment of energy and artificial intelligence estimates that data-center electricity consumption increased 17 percent in 2025, while consumption
Brandon Owens
