October 19, 2025
NOTUS Perspectives: AI Requires Massive Allocations of Energy. Will Other Sectors Suffer?
This article was originally published on NOTUS.
AI will force hard choices about how energy is allocated in America. Energy demand for developing advanced AI models is skyrocketing. One leading AI company expects to need 5 gigawatts of firm, reliable power (roughly equivalent to the output of five nuclear reactors) to train a single advanced model in 2028, with up to 25 gigawatts required nationwide for advanced AI training.
On the current trajectory, the government may need to prioritize energy for AI over other uses to ensure the United States remains the global leader in advanced AI.
While the Trump administration has taken aggressive steps to speed development — streamlining permitting and allowing use of federal lands — those measures alone will not meet the scale of energy demand. On the current trajectory, the government may need to prioritize energy for AI over other uses to ensure the United States remains the global leader in advanced AI. Tools like the Defense Production Act’s priorities and allocations authorities, or the Department of Energy’s power to override state transmission decisions, make such prioritization possible.
Read the full article on NOTUS.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
Technology & National Security / National Security Law
CNAS Insights | The Case for Long-Term CISA 2015 ReauthorizationLast fall, one of the United States’ most important cyber defense laws expired. For six weeks, the private sector no longer had legal protections to share critical cyber threa...
By Carrie Cordero & Morgan Peirce
-
Commentary
Technology & National Security
Taiwan Is the Key to AI DominanceA country determined to win the defining technological race of the century can’t allow its chief rival to control the industrial base on which that race depends....
By David Feith
-
Podcast
Defense / Technology & National Security
WarTalk: Iran War with Jack ShanahanThe “love tap” White House readout. A failed convoy operation. KSA pulling overflight rights. Iran with 70% of its missile force still intact. And one F-15E shoot-down from ab...
By Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan & Jordan Schneider
-
Reports
Technology & National Security
American AI Companies Can’t Get Enough ChipsIn 2026, artificial intelligence (AI) chip production has become a binding constraint on the pace of the AI compute buildout. Demand for computing power to train and deploy ad...
By James Sanders, Janet Egan & Rory Madigan
