Analyst Spotlight: Utilities
December 2025, From the Field
- Overview
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Watch two short videos with Vineet Khanna, Investment Analyst- Meeting AI power demands
- Utilities and Tech: Unlocking Power Together
Meeting AI power demands
I’m often asked if we can meet the power demands for AI, and it’s a great question. Unprecedented levels of growth that we’ve seen from this AI is – it’s just – something that we haven’t seen since the 1950s and 1960s when we had the adoption of electrical appliances and air conditioning. And there are a slew of constraints to consider – just building the power plants, building the grid, and connecting the data centers to the grid, as well as labor and supply chain. And when I think about those four elements, I really think labor is the most important and the hardest to solve. The government has allocated resources to shoring up the supply chain and ensuring power and interconnection are where they need to be. But we’ve seen less in terms of labor. It’s just a much harder nut to crack. I joke that instead of paying AI researchers hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe we should allocate some of the money to the skilled trades – the electricians, the welders – to help us build these things. But the ultimate answer to the question is: Yes. Over time, I think we can meet the power demands of AI. There will certainly be bumps along the way, but the supply chain, the utilities, and others have mobilized in a way we haven’t seen in a very long time.
Utilities and Tech: Unlocking Power Together
Most of us don’t think about utilities and tech companies working together, but we’re starting to see more of it, and I believe it could help get the power the AI data centers need and improve affordability for existing customers. In the past, tech companies and utilities didn’t really need to work together, as power was abundant and the tech companies really got what they needed. But as we’ve seen over the past few years, this is just no longer the case. This was initially a point of contention, but it’s actually blossomed into a partnership to unlock power, add low-cost generation like solar and storage, and lower the share of cost that other customers have to pay. Going forward, somewhat ironically, we can expect the venture and tech communities to collaborate with the utilities on AI tools that can unlock grid power and make power delivery cheaper, safer, and more reliable for all customers.
Vineet Khanna
Investment Analyst
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