Wire · technology
Data centers are actually making your electric bill cheaper—but sinking AI demand could change that
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Fusion42 · 26 July 2026 · Fusion42 review
A working paper from the Electric Power Research Institute found that data centre operations actually decreased retail electricity prices by 3.5% for every doubling of capacity between 2015 and 2024, contradicting public fears—but a $7 trillion buildout with uncertain AI demand could reverse this trend.
◆ ◆ The Wire takeaway
If you're building AI compute or infrastructure expecting to sell it on demand, the $7 trillion buildout assumes utilisation rates that may not materialise—and empty capacity destroys the unit economics that made this buildout viable in the first place. The window to prove returns on deployed capacity is narrowing.
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