The electricity bill of AI
Data centres consumed 485 TWh in 2025 and would reach about 950 by 2030. Where that capacity gets installed is being decided now, and Latin America is competing for it.
Executive summary
Worldwide data centre electricity consumption went from 415 TWh in 2024 to 485 in 2025, a 17% increase. The projection for 2030 is around 950 TWh, close to 3% of global electricity demand.
Growth is not uniform. Data centres dedicated to artificial intelligence grew 50% in 2025 and would triple their consumption by 2030; the rest of the infrastructure advances at a far more moderate pace.
Spending on data centre systems tracks that curve: USD 506 billion in 2025, with a forecast of USD 822 billion for 2026, according to Gartner. It is the fastest-growing IT spending line.
Latin America and the Caribbean announced USD 20.25 billion in digital projects during 2024, 36% more than the previous year and the decade's high. Eighty percent is concentrated in five countries.
Context
Compute capacity has stopped being a vendor question and become a power grid question. An AI data centre competes for firm capacity with industry and with cities.
That competition defines the geography of investment. Where there is available energy, predictable permitting and international connectivity, projects get announced and advance; where there is not, they are quietly postponed.
Figure 1 · Concentration of digital investment announcements in Latin America, 2024
% of the amount announced to the regionTable 1 · Worldwide data centre electricity consumption
terawatt-hours per year| Year | Consumption | % of world demand | Published in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 415 TWh | 1.5% | IEA, Energy and AI (2025) |
| 2025 | 485 TWh | not published | IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026) |
| 2030 (projection) | ≈950 TWh | ≈3% | IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026) |
Business implications
Ask about the grid connection lead time, not just the region. It is the variable that most delays a compute-intensive deployment and the one least likely to appear in a commercial proposal.
Treat energy efficiency as a line in the business case. At this scale consumption stops being an indirect cost and becomes an explicit assumption in the financial model.
Follow announcements, but do not confuse them with executed investment. Announced amounts signal intent; disbursed capital arrives years later and not always in full.
Methodology & data
Electricity consumption: International Energy Agency reports of April 2025 and April 2026. Regional investment: chapter III of ECLAC's foreign direct investment report of November 2025, built on fDi Markets greenfield project announcements. Data centre systems spending: Gartner press release of 27 July 2026.
The ECLAC data measure investment announcements, not capital actually disbursed.
References
International Energy Agency (2026). Key Questions on Energy and AI. · International Energy Agency (2025). Energy and AI. · ECLAC (2025). Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025 (LC/PUB.2025/7-P/Rev.1). · Gartner (27 July 2026). Gartner Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 14.2% in 2026.