AI Server Power Surge: Why Grid Delivery Bottlenecks Will Constraint US Data Centers from 2028
TrendForce estimates global data center electricity demand will reach 161GW by 2026, a 31% annual increase, driven primarily by AI servers.
AsiaAI Publisher
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September 16, 2026 ·
2 min read · Source: 科技新報 TechNews · Issue #98
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This story ran in Issue #98, alongside three other stories.
Enterprise & Cloud
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Source: TrendForce. 2026-2030 projections.
TrendForce estimates global data center electricity demand will reach 161GW by 2026, a 31% annual increase, driven primarily by AI servers. The proportion of AI servers in total data center electricity demand is expected to rise from 25% in 2025 to 33.4% in 2026, potentially exceeding 40% by 2027.
This surge in demand, coupled with slow grid growth, will create a significant power supply deficit. While ‘behind-the-meter’ generation by data center operators can mitigate some of this, grid delivery delays will become a major constraint from 2028, particularly in the US.
