America's power grid barely grew for 20 years and
@DavidSacks says that's a huge problem for the AI race (Save this).
"We already know that the precursor for data centers is power generation."
Sacks went back and checked the history. For most of the 20th century, the US doubled its electricity generation about every decade. Growth slowed in the 1970s and flatlined in the early 2000s.
Between 2005 and 2015, US utility-scale generation grew 0.79% in total while real GDP grew 14.4%.
He blames deindustrialization. Factories moved overseas, workers moved into offices, and offices use far less power. Efficiency gains did the rest.
"We kind of lost that muscle."
China kept it. Its electricity demand went from 5,802 TWh in 2015 to 10,573 TWh in 2025, nearly doubling in a decade. The US used 4,536 TWh last year.
In 2000, China generated about a third of America's electricity. Today it generates more than double.
Meanwhile, Americans are organizing against the projects that would bring demand back. Data Center Watch counted 75 data center projects worth about $130 billion blocked or delayed in Q1 2026 alone, and opposition groups more than doubled from 396 to 833 in three months.
Sacks calls it an "anti-data center witch hunt." Data centers already run the internet and every app on your phone, he says, and if the worry is surveillance or privacy, the fix is stronger privacy laws.
"Just trying to ban the data center seems insane."
In response, a growing number of data centers are skipping the grid.
Bloom Energy's fuel cells generate electricity on site, with no substation, transmission line or interconnection queue. Bloom says it can power an entire Oracle data center within 90 days, and in Q2 CEO KR Sridhar said every major US hyperscaler has now validated its systems.
$BE is up about 226% over the past year.
Our Head of Research Kyle Reidhead bought his first $BE in August at $203.72 and is up around 45%.
His reasoning: "Power is currently the biggest problem in the AI infrastructure buildout in the USA."
Two other PRO analysts hold it too. Vincent is up more than 100% on his February entry at $144.
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