The US Department of Energy has announced a $5.25 billion programme to upgrade the national electricity grid, aiming to unlock 23 gigawatts of additional power capacity across 31 projects in 26 states. The investment combines $1.9 billion in federal funding with $3.35 billion in cost-sharing and is designed to improve reliability and lower electricity costs for approximately 100 million Americans whilst addressing the surging power demands of the artificial intelligence sector.

The upgrades will involve reconductoring and rebuilding over 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploying advanced grid technologies across 21,000 miles of infrastructure. However, industry analysts have warned that this investment may fall short of meeting future demand, with Moody's cautioning that the pace of datacenter construction outstrips the grid's capacity for expansion, and predicting US datacenter electricity consumption will nearly double to 426 terawatt-hours by 2030. This supply-demand mismatch is driving alternative energy investments, including small modular reactors, geothermal generation, and the revival of ageing nuclear plants, whilst chipmakers such as Nvidia are developing more efficient datacentres that can potentially return power to the grid.