Alphabet’s investment chief says the promise of AI will only be realized if the United States can rapidly expand its energy base.
In an interview at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum, Alphabet’s Ruth Porat says the nation has underinvested in the grid for decades and must accelerate both short-term and long-term solutions.
According to Porat, the potential that comes from the massive AI infrastructure buildout will only be realized if the US can generate the power to bring data centers to life.
“The upside from AI is profound, and we can only access it if we actually have the energy to power it. So it’s important to keep those as two sides of the same equation. And clearly in the U.S. and in other places, we’ve underinvested in the grid for quite some time. We need to catch up.
What’s important are both short-term and long-term solutions that are right in front of us. Probably one of the most important, but longer-term, is continuing to make advancements in things like nuclear energy and advanced energy solutions. This is clearly a priority for the administration. We very much agree with it. We think it’s imperative that nuclear energy is a part of the energy mix.”
The Alphabet executive says China is already years ahead in the energy-generation department.
“When you look at what China is doing, they’ve been investing in nuclear for quite some time. They have about 30 gigawatts of nuclear in construction and another 200 gigawatts in development. The United States needs to avail itself of that, and I’m pleased the administration is very focused on how to fast-track it.”
Porat highlights that the US energy strain is immediate, not distant.
“Near term, there are some really important solutions. If we execute against these things that are right in front of us, we can increase capacity rapidly. We need it now. This is not a 2030 need, it’s a now need. We can do it, enhance affordability across the country, generate jobs, and decarbonize the grid…
The reality is there’s about 2,500 gigawatts of capacity in development that is waiting to get on the grid — a staggering number. But we need the transmission lines to get it on the grid.
To date, it takes about seven years in the US to build these transmission lines. With fast-tracking permitting and other work with states, you can cut that time in half, and some would say even more than that, which is a meaningful unlock.”
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