# Power is the bottleneck

> Who is paying for, and who gets to connect, the electricity that gigawatt-scale AI data centres need?

Labs have signed multi-gigawatt chip and data-centre deals that outstrip existing grid capacity. Hyperscalers are now funding reactors, regulators are rewriting interconnection rules, and the EU is using public money to anchor its own capacity.

## Stops
1. **21 Jan 2025: OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX launch $500bn Stargate data-centre venture** (Development) Sets the gigawatt scale for frontier labs. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-stargate-project-launch-2025-01/) · [source](https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/)
2. **6 Oct 2025: OpenAI signs 6GW AMD GPU deal and gets warrant for up to 160m AMD shares** (Development) Chip deals are now measured in gigawatts, not units. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-openai-amd-6gw-deal-2025-10/) · [source](https://openai.com/index/openai-amd-strategic-partnership)
3. **23 Jul 2025: AI Action Plan** (Rule) Federal policy makes data-centre and grid build-out a priority. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/rule/us-ai-action-plan-2025/) · [source](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf)
4. **9 Jan 2026: Meta signs nuclear deals with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo for up to 6.6GW by 2035** (Development) A hyperscaler underwrites new reactors directly. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-meta-nuclear-deals-6-6gw-2026-01/) · [source](https://www.ans.org/news/2026-01-12/article-7666/meta-strikes-deals-with-vistra-oklo-terrapower/)
5. **6 Apr 2026: Anthropic secures multiple gigawatts of Google TPU capacity with Broadcom from 2027** (Development) Another multi-gigawatt commitment from 2027, mostly in the US. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-anthropic-google-broadcom-tpu-deal-2026-04/) · [source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/google-broadcom-partnership-compute)
6. **18 Jun 2026: FERC orders six US grid operators to fix or defend rules for connecting data centres** (Development) The grid regulator forces each region to set rules for connecting large loads. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-ferc-large-load-show-cause-orders-2026-06/) · [source](https://www.velaw.com/insights/ferc-institutes-six-simultaneous-section-206-proceedings-targeting-large-load-interconnection-across-all-rto-iso-markets/)
7. **16 Sep 2026: Emerald AI, Google and NVIDIA form alliance for grid-flexible AI data centres** (Development) Industry offers flexibility in exchange for faster connection. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/us-ai-energy-management-alliance-2026-09/) · [source](https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-energy-management-alliance/)
8. **30 Jul 2026: EU opens call for up to seven AI gigafactories in at least seven member states** (Development) Europe's publicly anchored alternative, with bids due 12 Nov 2026. [page](https://wheresthe.ai/d/eu-ai-gigafactories-call-2026-07/) · [source](https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/eurohpc-joint-undertaking-launches-ai-gigafactories-call-2026-07-30_en)

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Canonical page: https://wheresthe.ai/line/power-bottleneck-ai-compute/ · A Line of Thought from wheresthe.ai