Tech companies like Microsoft and OpenAI are struggling to meet growing demands for power as AI adoption increases. With power becoming a major barrier, companies are racing to secure power while also ordering more chips than needed, leading to inventory issues.
The issue is not just about compute power but also the ability to build data centers quickly close to power sources. This has led to a surge in demand from utilities’ plans for new generating capacity, forcing data center developers to add power through “behind-the-meter” arrangements.
Experts like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warn that if cheap energy comes online soon at scale, companies may be burned with existing contracts they’ve signed. Altman also believes that more efficient AI could lead to increased demand, as people would want to use more compute power to take advantage of lower costs.
The tech industry’s reliance on silicon and code has led to a need for expertise in the energy world, highlighting the challenges of scaling up efforts in this area. While solar power is becoming increasingly popular due to its inexpensive cost and rapid deployment, it still takes time to build and can be affected by changing demand patterns.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/03/altman-and-nadella-need-more-power-for-ai-but-theyre-not-sure-how-much