Paris, 16 April 2026 A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) assesses how the relationship between energy and artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, drawing on the latest data and analysis and close tracking of technological and economic developments in the AI sector. Building on the IEA’s landmark Energy and AI report from April 2025, the new analysis published today finds that the field has continued to develop at speed. Driven by data centre investments, the capital expenditure of five large technology companies surged to more than $400 billion in 2025 and is set to increase by a further 75% in 2026. Electricity demand from data centres soared by 17% in 2025, and that of AI-focused data centres climbed even faster – well outpacing growth in global electricity demand of 3%. According to the report – Key Questions on Energy and AI – power consumption per AI task is declining rapidly, with efficiency improving at a rate unprecedented in energy history. However, more people are using AI, and energy-intensive uses – such as AI agents – are on the rise. As a result, electricity consumption from data centres is set to double by 2030, and power use from those focused on AI is poised to triple. At the same time, AI deployment is increasingly coming up against a range of physical bottlenecks, limiting the rate at which data centres can expand in the near term. Supply chains for energy technologies such as gas turbines and transformers, as well as for advanced chips and IT components, have tightened over the past year – and the swelling pipeline of data centre projects is straining planning and regulatory systems, holding up grid connections and other necessary approvals. To solve the energy challenges at hand, the tech sector is adopting new approaches.