Elon Musk has warned that artificial intelligence development could hit significant power supply constraints as soon as mid-2025, due to increasing energy demands from large data centers. Musk revealed his AI startup, xAI, is building a gigawatt-scale data center outside Memphis, Tennessee, roughly equivalent to the output of an average U.S. nuclear plant. Power generation, along with chip and transformer shortages, poses a major challenge for AI expansion, Musk said in a CNBC interview. Other industry players, including Google, have also raised alarms about an impending U.S. power capacity crisis as the AI sector races with China, which continues to ramp up its power generation. The reliance on natural gas turbines by xAI has drawn criticism from environmental groups, while some U.S. utilities caution that expectations for future energy consumption may be overstated.
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