Companies Driving the AI Boom

Much of the U.S. power grid is expected to face severe reliability issues in the coming years. According to a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, supply constraints in the electric power industry, coupled with surging energy demand, will expose more than 150 million Americans across over a dozen states to high risk of electricity failures and regular blackouts. The NERC report found that the leading driver of growth in electricity demand will be new data centers, used to power Artificial Intelligence technology.

A single data center can require more than 500,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. And according to a recent report from the American Edge Project, there are now nearly 2,800 new data centers in the planning or construction phase nationwide. 

These new data centers are being underwritten by some of the biggest names in the American tech industry. Corporate announcements indicate that future AI infrastructure capex will exceed $600 billion between Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft alone. Planned investments by these and other companies represent the continuation of a years-long AI buildout that is threatening to overload much of the U.S. power grid. 

Using data compiled by Business Insider, Climate Crisis 247 identified the companies behind the most resource-intensive AI data centers. We ranked all companies and brands by the total estimated power usage of their data centers that have either been built or approved for construction as of late 2024. Supplemental data for data center locations are also from BI. 

Among the companies and brands on this list, high-end estimates for electricity demand for data centers in their name ranges from 674,129 MWh to 5.5 million MWh per year, enough to power between 64,000 and over half a million typical American homes. The brands behind these data centers include familiar tech industry names, like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as lesser known companies that specialize in cyber infrastructure, like CoreSite and CyrusOne. 

10. Stack Infrastructure (14 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 421,335 – 674,129 MWh per year (enough to power up to 64,203 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Maricopa County, Arizona (1 data center)
• Brand’s power usage in Maricopa County: 216,688 – 346,700 MWh per year (enough to power up to 33,019 households annually)

9. CoreSite (17 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 443,359 – 709,372 MWh per year (enough to power up to 67,559 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Fairfax County, Virginia (2 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Fairfax County: 379,054 – 606,486 MWh per year (enough to power up to 57,761 households annually)

8. Aligned Data Centers (13 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 539,973 – 863,954 MWh per year (enough to power up to 82,281 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Maricopa County, Arizona (4 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Maricopa County: 234,393 – 375,027 MWh per year (enough to power up to 35,717 households annually)

7. CyrusOne (31 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 574,350 – 918,951 MWh per year (enough to power up to 87,519 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Loudoun County, Virginia (6 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Loudoun County: 158,032 – 252,850 MWh per year (enough to power up to 24,081 households annually)

6. Digital Realty (70 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 1.0 million – 1.6 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 156,860 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Loudoun County, Virginia (19 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Loudoun County: 459,378 – 735,002 MWh per year (enough to power up to 70,000 households annually)

5. Meta (32 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 1.2 million – 2.0 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 188,929 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Sarpy County, Nebraska (1 data center)
• Brand’s power usage in Sarpy County: 496,525 – 794,440 MWh per year (enough to power up to 75,661 households annually)

4. Google (47 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 1.4 million – 2.2 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 212,690 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Douglas County, Nebraska (1 data center)
• Brand’s power usage in Douglas County: 314,975 – 503,960 MWh per year (enough to power up to 47,996 households annually)

3. QTS (34 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 1.6 million – 2.6 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 251,134 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Maricopa County, Arizona (2 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Maricopa County: 521,770 – 834,832 MWh per year (enough to power up to 79,508 households annually)

2. Microsoft (44 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 1.8 million – 2.9 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 276,908 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Mecklenburg County, Virginia (8 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Mecklenburg County: 497,570 – 796,108 MWh per year (enough to power up to 75,820 households annually)

1. Amazon (177 data centers in the U.S.)

• Brand’s nationwide data center power usage: 3.4 million – 5.5 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 522,332 households annually)
• U.S. county where company data centers use the most power: Loudoun County, Virginia (80 data centers)
• Brand’s power usage in Loudoun County: 1.0 million – 1.7 million MWh per year (enough to power up to 159,823 households annually)