The artificial intelligence boom is straining a power grid that officials say is already old and increasingly targeted by foreign hackers, raising a dual challenge for the country: building enough electricity capacity to support AI while keeping the system secure.
Data centers built to run AI technology are driving a surge in electricity demand. At the same time, cyberattacks are threatening the grid infrastructure that keeps homes and businesses running. Both problems have to be solved together, because expanding and modernizing the grid fast enough to power an AI-driven economy could open new vulnerabilities for foreign governments, criminal groups, and hackers to exploit.
Concerns about grid capacity aren’t new. They first grew alongside the rollout of electric vehicles. Now the focus has shifted to AI. The US Department of Energy has noted that more than 90% of consumed power passes through high-voltage transformers at some point, and that aging infrastructure is putting the energy supply at risk: more than 70% of the country’s transformers are at least 25 years old, and another 15% are over 40 years old, beyond their expected life span.
A Declared National Emergency
On Aug. 26, President Donald Trump declared a
