India, July 21 -- Data centers in the US are expected to use around 20% of the country's electricity by 2035, up from 5.9% today, according to BloombergNEF. By 2030, data centers are expected to consume about 12% of US electricity before rising further to 20% by 2035. States like Virginia and Texas, where many data centers are located, are expected to see an even bigger share of their electricity being used by these facilities.

The biggest reason behind this sharp rise is the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), which needs huge data centers to process and store information. BNEF estimates that US data center power demand will reach 194 gigawatts (GW) by 2035. The 194 GW forecast is 83% higher than BNEF's previous estimate made ...