Don't Overlook the Hidden Force Powering the Next Era of AI: U.S. power supplies are being "distorted" by electricity-hungry data centers.

Stansberry Research ^ | 11/17/2025 | Sean Michael Cummings

[McGruff]

If you have to build a power plant just to run an AI data center something’s wrong.

[Jonty30]

America needs a dual energy grid plan. One that allows local nuclear energy for AI and data centers and a residential grid.

[SuperLuminal]

All AI centers should be required to operate on nuclear power only...
That would get those small-reactor technologies into operation very quickly...

[Paul R.]

If the power demand spikes have millisecond periods, capacitors make more sense than batteries.

[RoosterRedux]

Here's Grok's assessment of this "article":

The original article is straight-up newsletter clickbait. It correctly identifies the real problem—AI data centers are blowing up electricity demand and creating potentially problematic harmonics—but then pretends the grid is frozen in time and “only batteries can save us.” Total nonsense in 2025.

What it conveniently leaves out:

• Billions in new gas plants already under construction specifically for data centers (Exxon, Chevron, GE Vernova, etc.)

• Nuclear restarts (Three Mile Island) and new SMR deals (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, xAI’s own 150 MW substation in Memphis)

• $50–100B in grid upgrades and transmission projects already approved

• New state laws and tariffs that make the data centers themselves pay for interconnections and fast-track approvals

• Hyperscalers simply building their own off-grid power plants because they’re tired of waiting

Batteries are useful for smoothing millisecond spikes and harmonics, but they’re a sidekick, not the hero. The heavy lifting is coming from new baseload (mostly gas short-term, nuclear medium-term) and private generation.

The article isn’t analysis—it’s a sales funnel dressed up as insight. The power crunch is real, but the “buy battery stocks today or get left behind” pitch is pure 2025 hype.

[RoosterRedux]

Grok seems to have produced a confusing sentence here:

• Nuclear restarts (Three Mile Island) and new SMR deals (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, xAI’s own 150 MW substation in Memphis)

It appears to incorrectly lump xAI’s Memphis substation into the “SMR (small modular reactor) deals” category.

Here's a clearer sentence on that:

“Nuclear restarts like Three Mile Island, new SMR partnerships with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and even private energy infrastructure such as xAI’s 150 MW Memphis substation all show how the industry is scrambling to meet exploding AI power demand.”

[9YearLurker]

Something’s definitely wrong.

[maddog55]

Haven’t been impressed with GROK lately... When asking some simple questions GROK got the dates all wrong talking about post Thanksgiving holiday, then I said it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, GROK said , you’re right it’s on only Sunday the 24th. I said wrong again it’s Monday the 24th. GROK said I’m right again..... Pretty sad.

[Steven Tyler]

NY State is forcing all homes and business to go electric.
Electric heat for the coldest winter days, yea!

Government meddling driving idiotic decisions

PS> What type of power generation is going to fill up those batteries??

[Steven Tyler]

True!!

[Steven Tyler]

...transmission projects already approved..

I hope they lay those tramission lines underground.

Too much risk to overhead power lines from wind, snow, ice, falling hydro poles, power lines sparking and cousing fires..

[pierrem15]

Decades of public policy said we must restrict fossil fuel electric plants "to save the planet" from air pollution and "global warming." Decades of propaganda and a glacial regulatory environment told us that if we built nuke plants too quickly or too many of them we'd get Hiroshima in our living room.

Now because a bunch of tech oligarchs need power for AI datacenters it's Shazaam! - decades of public policy get thrown immediately out the window.

I'm glad we'll get the extra power generation, but there are few things that illustrate how far down the road to oligarchy the US has gone than this.

[JimRed]

One that allows local nuclear energy for AI and data centers and a residential grid.

Build lots of efficient and (I've heard) safer pebble bed reactors for both uses. And instead of storing used fuel as "waste", reprocess it until the last bit of energy is harvested.

[dfwgator]

My question is, will eventually the LLMs be hosted on local machines without requiring the massive data centers? I could see in 5-10 years the LLMs as powerful as what we have now could simply be firmware on your laptop.

Of course this would shift the electricity demand from the data centers to the homes.

[JimRed]

Is GROK just a geek in his mom’s basement?

[PLMerite]

[nitzy]

But remember....we need to kill all the cows to stop their burps, switch everyone over to a laboratory based diet and ban fertilizers because the climate is so fragile.

[Moltke]

In 2022, they consumed about 17 gigawatts ("GW") of power. (For reference, the Hoover Dam only produces about 2 GW per year.)

An author that does not know when to use Watt (power) and when Watt-hours (energy) is not to be trusted.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Haven’t been impressed with GROK lately

Try other LLMs, there’s lots of them out there. I personally like Perplexity.ai