We talk a lot about algorithms, but artificial intelligence is, above all, an infrastructure problem. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest report, electricity demand from data centres surged 17% in 2025, while demand from AI-focused data centres specifically grew by 50% over the same period. The projection for 2030 is even more striking: from 485 TWh to 950 TWh globally, nearly doubling in five years. Just five major tech companies invested over $400 billion in 2025 alone — a figure that already exceeds global investment in oil and gas production.
This isn’t a minor detail for the industrial sector: it means AI has effectively become a first-tier industrial consumer, with the same grid, power, and planning demands as a steel mill or a chemical plant.