Fact-Check Rates Trump's AI Power Claim Mostly False, Citing 9% to 25% Demand Estimates
Updated
Updated · WRAL News · Jul 22
Fact-Check Rates Trump's AI Power Claim Mostly False, Citing 9% to 25% Demand Estimates
2 articles · Updated · WRAL News · Jul 22
Summary
PolitiFact rated Donald Trump’s July 8 claim that AI needs more electricity than the U.S. produces—“almost double,” by some estimates—Mostly False.
Federal and independent projections reviewed for the fact-check put U.S. data-center electricity demand at roughly 9% to 25% of national consumption or generation, far below 100% or 200%.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated data centers would use 9.5% to 15.3% of U.S. electricity by 2030, while EPRI projected 9% to 17%, up from 4% to 5% today.
Longer-range studies were similarly lower: the Energy Information Administration put a 2050 maximum at 15%, and the highest projection cited—Boston Consulting Group—was about a quarter of 2023 generation.
Experts said AI power demand is rising fast as model training and data centers expand, but they see no credible path for it to approach total U.S. electricity demand.