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AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers ...
Who doesn’t love a good round of FOMO? From dot-com to Web 2.0, virtual reality to blockchain, the tech industry has had its share of being too afraid to miss out on a trend. The AI bubble is the big daddy of them all. Its first offspring — the rush to lock down power for data centers — is now begetting a mad dash to secure natural gas supplies and equipment. If FOMOs could have babies, then the AI bubble is already having grandkids. Microsoft said on Tuesday that it’s working with Chevron and Engine No. 1 to build a natural gas power plant in West Texas that could grow to produce 5 gigawatts of electricity. This week Google confirmed that it’s working with Crusoe to build a 933 MW natural gas power plant in North Texas. And last week, Meta announced that it was adding another seven natural gas power plants to its Hyperion data center in Louisiana, bringing the site to 7.46 GW of capacity — enough to power the entire state of South Dakota. Are we missing anyone? The recent investments are concentrated in the southern U.S., home to some of the largest natural gas deposits in the world. Recently, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that there’s enough in one region to supply energy to the entire United States for 10 months by itself. Every data center operator seems to want a part of it. The scramble for natural gas has led to a shortage of turbines for the power plants, with prices likely to rise 195% by the end of this year relative to 2019 prices, according to Wood Mackenzie. The equipment contributes 20% to 30% of the cost of a power plant. Companies won’t be able to place new orders until 2028, and it’...
Meta Funds Seven Natural Gas Power Plants to Fuel AI Data Centers
The New Reality of AI Infrastructure: Meta’s Strategic Pivot As the race for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) accelerates, the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence has shifted from algorithm efficiency to the raw, physical reality of energy consumption. Meta has recently made a decisive, albeit controversial, move to secure the future of its AI infrastructure by announcing the funding of seven new natural gas power plants. This development marks a significant departure from the trend of pure renewable reliance, signaling a pragmatic, if stark, acknowledgment of the energy demands required to power the next generation of massive AI data centers. The announcement underscores a fundamental challenge facing the tech industry: the "AI energy wall." While AI models have grown exponentially in intelligence, their appetite for electricity has followed a parallel, vertical trajectory. Meta’s latest initiative is a direct response to the grid instability and power shortages that threaten to throttle the deployment of large-scale AI models. By moving from a consumer of energy to an active funder of power generation, Meta is attempting to secure the "baseload power"—reliable, non-intermittent electricity—that is essential for running compute-heavy GPU clusters around the clock. Understanding the Shift to Natural Gas The selection of natural gas as the primary fuel source for these seven power plants is both a strategic calculation and a logistical necessity. While tech giants have long touted ambitious carbon-neutral goals, the reality of high-density AI computing requires electricity that does not fluctuate based on weather conditions or time of day. Unlike wind or solar, which require significant battery storage to provide constant power, natural gas offers a consistent, high-capacity output capable of meeting the immediate needs of data centers. Industry analysts suggest that this shift reflects a prioritization of "time-to-market" over short-term
Meta to fund seven gas plants for its Louisiana AI data center
Meta will fund the construction of seven new natural gas power plants to support its largest data center, currently under development in Louisiana, WSJ reports. This initiative is part of a broader pledge by the company to address rising electricity costs in local communities.
Meta Funds Ten Natural Gas Plants To Power Its Largest AI Campus
On March 27, Entergy Louisiana announced that Meta will fund the construction of seven new natural gas power plants for its Hyperion AI data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana.
