What happens when you say “Hello” to ChatGPT?
Such a simple query might seem trivial, but making it possible across billions of sessions requires immense scale. While OpenAI reveals little information about its operations, we’ve used the scraps we do have to estimate the impact of ChatGPT—and of the generative AI industry in general.
OpenAI’s actions also provide hints. As part of the United States’ Stargate Project, OpenAI will collaborate with other AI titans to build the largest data centers yet. And AI companies expect to need dozens of “Stargate-class” data centers to meet user demand.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-energy-use
The Schneider Electric report estimates that all generative AI queries consume 15 TWh in 2025 and will use 347 TWh by 2030; that leaves 332 TWh of energy—and compute power—that will need to come online to support AI growth. That implies the construction of dozens of data centers along the lines of the Stargate Project, which plans to build the first ever 1-gigawatt facilities. Each of these facilities will theoretically consume 8.76 TWh per year—so 38 of these new campuses will account for the 332 TWh of new energy required.
347 TWh = 47 Nuclear Reactors just for AI
While estimates for AI energy use in 2030 vary, most predict a dramatic jump in consumption. The gain in energy consumption will be driven mostly by AI inference (the power used when interacting with a model) instead of AI training. This number could be much lower or much higher than the Schneider Electric estimate used here, depending on the success of AI agents that can work together—and consume energy—independent of human input.
This article is part of The Scale Issue. https://spectrum.ieee.org/special-reports/scale/
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