AI data centers use as much power as small cities. Cloud giants already sign power contracts years ahead — and whoever supplies power, turbines and cooling is now part of the AI story.
CHAPTER 1
An AI chip alone does nothing. It needs a data center, and the data center needs enormous amounts of power and cooling — around the clock.
CHAPTER 2
Building a power plant or a new grid connection takes years — far longer than building a data center. So power became the limit, and the cloud giants buy it in advance with long contracts.
CHAPTER 3
A sole supplier means there's nowhere else to buy. This is how one failure rolls down the chain:
CHAPTER 4
NVIDIA's largest customers are the cloud giants — Microsoft, Amazon and Google — building huge data centers.
In 2024 Microsoft signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to restart a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island site.
Data centers also need turbines and cooling — GE Vernova makes gas turbines, and Vertiv makes data-center power and cooling systems.
🔬 Semiconductors
Every AI chip in the world passes through two companies
✈️ Aviation
The world's best-selling jets fly on a single engine option
🛡️ Airport security
Who guards the airports — and gains from every threat
🔋 EV batteries
Tesla spread its risk. GM and Ford didn't
💊 Weight-loss drugs
Two companies dominate the weight-loss drug market
🧲 Rare earths
The magnets inside every fighter jet and missile — with no substitute
Built from widely reported public facts (company filings, the EIA, company statements). Effects marked 'may' or 'could' are reasoned expectations, not recorded events. Not investment advice.
