Global Data Center Electricity Consumption Projected to Surge 26% in 2026 Driven by AI

Brickinfo News Agency – Worldwide data center electricity consumption is projected to grow by 26% in 2026, reaching a total of 565 terawatt-hours (TWh), primarily fueled by the rapid integration and expansion of artificial intelligence technologies.

The forecast, published by Gartner, highlights a significant jump from the 447 TWh recorded in 2025. Alongside electricity usage, total data center power demand is expected to rise by 27% in 2026 to reach 132 gigawatts (GW), up from 104 GW the previous year. This accelerated growth trajectory is heavily driven by the unprecedented scale and pace of generative AI deployments, which are estimated to push global power demand to 290 GW by 2030.

The shift toward specialized hardware is a major contributing factor to this energy surge. According to the data, AI-optimized servers will account for 31% of total data center power consumption in 2026. This trend is moving so rapidly that by 2027, the energy required to run these specialized AI systems is expected to completely surpass the power consumption of conventional servers.

Linglan Wang, Director Analyst at Gartner, explained the market dynamics, stating, “Surging demand for compute-intensive AI workloads is driving unprecedented data center power growth, while AI capacity is now constrained by power availability.” Wang noted that this reality makes data center power security the new battleground for scaling operations and protecting margins in the global AI race.

Looking toward the end of the decade, the industry faces an energy-constrained future. With long-term data center electricity consumption estimated to exceed 1,200 TWh by 2030, existing grid supplies are anticipated to be insufficient to meet the demands of future infrastructure construction. To navigate this, Wang advised that infrastructure and operations leaders must prioritize efficiency upgrades and secure grid access, adding that they need to invest in high-efficiency cooling systems and edge computing to mitigate power constraints and ensure sustainable, scalable growth.