US AI Data Centers to Drive Massive Natural Gas Demand by 2035

15 Sept 2026, 11:59 pm · 16h ago · 1 min read · TechCrunch AI

Surging power demands from artificial intelligence infrastructure could make US data centers among the largest global consumers of natural gas by 2035, according to recent energy forecasts. Driven by the intense computational needs of training and operating large language models, data center natural gas consumption in the United States is projected to exceed the combined annual consumption of Germany and Japan. The forecast highlights the severe energy constraints facing hyperscalers and cloud providers as renewable power installations struggle to keep pace with the exponential growth of generative AI compute requirements and capacity builds.