Inside the AI power wars

For those steeped in the world of AI development, the major differences between tech giants’ chip strategies are easy enough to see: the speed of Google’s TPUs, the affordability of Amazon’s Trainium, and Nvidia’s market dominance. But those same companies’ respective energy strategies often fly under the radar. As data center buildouts surge across the U.S., the tech industry is hitting a massive wall: a power grid that can’t move fast enough to support them. In this episode, Shayle sits down with Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros, who leads coverage of infrastructure and power at SemiAnalysis, to lift the curtain on the hyper-competitive world of AI energy procurement. They cover topics including: The hyperscaler leaderboard: Why Google remains the most energy-sophisticated tech giant, as others continue to innovate Why power has effectively become revenue for frontier labs How Google uses its massive balance sheet to provide financial backstops for Anthropic’s data center buildouts Why the interconnection queue is forcing AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic to bring their own generation The sudden market frenzy over modular speed-to-power options—ranging from aeroderivative gas turbines and massive reciprocating engines to billions of dollars of fuel cells Catalyst: How data centers are complicating transmission expansion Catalyst: Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive AI capex Catalyst: The rise of flexible data centers Catalyst: AI scaling pathways: On grid, on edge, off grid, off planet Open Circuit: The new reality for data centers: No easy answers Open Circuit: Can data centers regain their social license? Open Circuit: Grid utilization vs expansion: The 100GW debate Latitude Media: FERC to grid operators: Connect large loads to transmission faster Latitude Media: The rise of the data center power exchange Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor. This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn't just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what's next. Learn more at engieresources.com. Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at EnergyHub.com. Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.