CERAWEEK-US needs more energy development to power AI, Google president says

HOUSTON, March 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. may not be scaling energy supplies fast enough to to meet the demands of the artificial intelligence expansion, Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google parent Alphabet said on Monday, referring to the vast amount of capacity needed to power the growth in AI data centers.

"We are concerned that we are not full throttle on energy,” she said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, adding that the country will need to embrace every source of energy to meet the moment.

Big Tech is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into its expansion of energy-intensive server warehouses, which are used to train and roll out artificial intelligence. The effort, which is concentrated in the U.S., has been met with challenges, including long waits to connect to grids and shortages of supplies of critical power plant components like gas turbines.

Google parent Alphabet GOOGL.O recently made the unprecedented move of buying a power company to help serve its growth ambitions. It is also investing in advanced nuclear reactors and contracting with utilities for so-called demand response, which requires data centers to curb their electricity use at times of peak demand.

In one project, the technology company has contracted with major electricity provider NextEra Energy NEE.N to restart a shut nuclear power plant in Iowa for its data centers.