Global data center power consumption has surged to 67.7 GW, a 36% increase over two years, according to the International Data Center Authority's (IDCA) 2026 report. The US accounts for a significant portion of this draw, with an estimated 13% of its cloud consumption attributed to "zombie" workloads that consume power without performing actual tasks. This rapid growth is beginning to face pushback in several markets due to grid strain, with IDCA noting that investment in data centers is approaching $1 trillion annually. AI
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IMPACT Highlights the growing energy demands of data centers, a critical infrastructure component for AI development and deployment.
RANK_REASON The cluster reports on findings from an industry body's annual report concerning data center capacity and power consumption. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=0.7]
