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Welcome back to numbercreen. I'm Tom Ellsworth the bisdoc and this week it's AI data centers and electricity because you asked for it. Down below you can always leave comments and tell us what you want and we have what we believe you're thinking about and are curious about. And I'm going to take you through and let you know what this means. What is 1.4 trillion in capital spending by 2030? What is one job per $13 million spent? And what is 6 to 12% of total energy usage by 2028? Can that be right data centers using that? And have there really been $ 31 billion in rate hike requests in the first 6 weeks of 2026? And lastly, what is 300 and 100? I'm going to tell you what it translates to
in terms of moratoriums and bills being passed through state legislatores everywhere. We have all of that. AI, electricity. We've got the power this week. Before we dive into these numbers about electricity and AI, let's talk about diving into your numbers to give you the power. Bet David Consulting is dedicated to helping small businesses, midsize businesses achieve their goals and reach their dreams. We do it through conferences, one-on-one consulting, and more. Check out the link below and see how we can help you. First up, 1.4 trillion in capex buildouts by the nation's utilities to happen by 2030. And by the way, what's with the 27%. Guess what? It's up 27% from the budget estimates those
utilities made for buildouts last year. Why is that? Because you see the 355 billion here. Look at this. 355 billion is what the big hyperscalers and AI data center owners are spending this year on their data centers and they need power. So the forecast build out for power is big. Take a look at this. The Apollo program that was put a man on the moon. They spent this and all these dollars have been translated to current dollars so we can compare each one. Here's the big five AI capex of this year. Bigger than the Apollo program. all of the interstate highway system that interconnected. Dwight Eisenhower, by the way, he was a president going way back. He invested this much on the interstate system. So, trucks could be
taking goods back and forth across USA. You and I got to also go on vacations and go from one state to the other more easily and faster. But look at that. Big five in one year is almost as much as the entire interstate highway buildout. And by the way, never mind the AI utility buildout that's needed to support this from 25 and 24 and 23 and 26 and beyond is nothing less than shocking. This is the biggest infrastructure buildout in American history. The biggest impact on capex in American history and it's hitting the public data centers powered by electricity. So it hits the public and electricity as much as it's private in business building the data centers and providing AI to you and me. So that is
step one in what's going on. You wanted the numbers. Here they are and it's screaming billions impacting businesses and consumers, which is you and me. Next up, one job per 13 million spent. What are we talking about? This is one that frustrates me as it much as frustrates you. Even though I want to see the development of AI services, but I also don't want to see an impact on the American consumer. You know how I feel about that. And you're about to see on screen the pledge that the president asked AI providers to make when it came to producing power. You're seeing on that blue screen the pledge that's right
there at the white house.gov GV talking about the president asking for voluntary cooperation so that AI data center builders could be responsible for building their own power infrastructure and be part of the solution, not just allow it to be passed to the utilities who raise prices for you and me. Well, guess what? One of the things that they talked the states into when they said, "Hey, we like to build a data center in your backyard." Did you say building? I could put property tax on that somewhere. You could pay taxes in my state. I'm in favor of it. Well, wait a minute. We don't want to pay taxes for about five years, and in exchange, we'll build it. Otherwise, we're going to build it somewhere else. Wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait. I'm trying to get reelected this year. I'll give you that tax cut. Guess what? Here it comes. Now, you take and look at the reality. On a national average basis, for every $13 million it's spent building a data center, one permanent job. That's it. So the construction is 10 to one on permanent jobs to construction. And if we only look in Virginia, the hot bed of data centers is in North Virginia. If we only look there, the state government in tax cuts or benefits in exchange for build your data center. Here they have given away $1.6 $6 billion in tax dollars that won't come to the Virginia government because these were tax cuts given to the data center builders in
exchange for building there because oh we're going to make jobs. The truth is coming out and that these tax cuts should not have been given in this way. The data center owner operators were going to find the land probably build it there anyway. And the economic development councils that work for America's governors were thinking, "Oh, we got to attract it. It's competitive. We don't do it here. New Jersey will give it to them." Well, now we're finding out that's not the case. And take a look. If you just look at the meta data center, the TMC chip plant, and the Virginia data cent's average, you see what they have given up in
revenue just to get them there. And guess what? We're only talking one job for every $13 million spent. I think that's a bad deal. Next up, energy is estimated to be between 6.7 and 12% on a national basis by 2028. That's based on the energy we're creating. Now, take a look at this. The blue line represents the base projection of what percent of energy will be consumed by data centers and data storage hubs, mostly data centers where AI and other things are running. Take a look at this line. Now remember, there's also a Department of Energy high-end projection. So the Department of Energy is saying things could be even
worse. So they really don't know. They think by 2028, that's a year and a half from now, a year and a half. We're sitting here in May of 2026, you're looking at between six, that's actually 6.7 to 12% with the national average run rate being approximately 9% by 2030. Now hang on. Remember I talked about Virginia and how maybe some poor planning or maybe they were a little eager. Northern Virginia is the data center and AI computation area hotbed of the world. And the estimate is that Virginia's grid will have 40% of the megawws generated on the Virginia grid will be powering data centers. Let me say that again. 40% of the Virginia grid will be powering data centers. So if you're Akmed Al Kaboom and you want to
create problems for the US economy, the place you want to hit will be Northern Virginia. We hope there's security in place because in terms of national security, that is where there could be serious issues. But where are there even bigger issues? This is why there's such a furer on we got to get small nukes, we got to get permits that I have been a supporter of because we need that. We also need the data center providers to be bringing plans forward in outland rural areas that are far from the central uh areas so not driving up home prices consuming land as far out as possible with their own small nuke reactors so they can provide it. So we get AI the data centers get their place
and the impact on communities is lower because the impact on grids is unmistakable. Next up, the true cost and what's really going on in the two-part story of $ 31 billion in rate hikes. First, let me tell you a little story. There are two sides to the power problem in AI. One is high tension wires and transmission underground, above ground, wherever it is, high-end cabling to get the power from where it's generated to the data center where it goes. Wires are said to be 45 to 50% of the cost. Power generation about 55% of the cost. You follow that? Not only do you get the new power plant to bring power to the data center, now you need the wires and infrastructures, which is why putting
reactor collocated on site with the data centers is such a wise decision. Now you just need the wires from there to take that power back to the normal grid if there's a civil disturbance or something so that the data center operators could be good citizens using the power from the reactor on site to power the data center and if there's tornadoes or issues that are out there and they can keep their power working, they can flow it out to the grid to help the citizens in time of need. It seems to be a nice symbiotic relationship if it worked that way. Right now it's not. Right now we have pressure. Half of the buildout is transmission and distribution.
Historically the wire costs get spread around to the rate players. Rate hikes. Now some of this is hidden. If they were building data centers in California, one of the hidden costs would be they have to rebuild all of that PG& infrastructure that goes through central California. you know, some of the ancient stuff that was in the PG& towers in California that was actually arcing during storms and causing some of the wildfires. That stuff that was way too old and hadn't been retrofit and the deals with Sacramento PG& allegedly hadn't done that. Well, guess what? Around the US also, these data center buildouts have been opportunities for power companies to go, we really need to
retrofit. Maybe this is the time we do it and just kind of slide it into the budget there. Yes, it's happening exactly that way and it's coming to the rateayer. The other half is generation. Now, is the generation coal power, oil power, gas power, hydro or modern nuke? Who knows? But the transmission cost and the generation costs are both two part of the issue. Now, guess what? $ 31 billion in consumer rate hikes were requested last year and 64% of them were approved. Now, you take a look at the rate hikes from 24, which were just under 15 billion. It doubled in 2025. No wonder this is an election issue for the midterms. No wonder the average
consumers are heading to city hall with complaints that fall in to the next issue that we have for you right now. Last point, number five. 300 bills that have shown up in legislatures everywhere and a 100 moratoriums recorded in the first six weeks of 2026. That's right. We're standing here in May and this is just the official tabulation through February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day. We have 300 state bills trying to stop data centers or adjust them. A 100 local moratoriums. Take a look at what happened. 300 bills in the first six weeks of 2026, barely 175, all of 25. There was less than a hundred in 2024, less than 50 2023. In 2022, what's a moratorum? What's a bill? What's the problem? What's the fuss? We're all
trying to come out of COVID, whatever. Well, now if you take a look at what's going on here, we have gone from ribbon cutings to protests. When Bernie Sanders and the local Republican committee in Northern Virginia are in agreement, you know something's wrong. This is where it's come to. Now, there are a ton of these bills. The numbers I have found that up to 92% of the 300 pieces of legislation have stalled due to lobbyists representing the power industry and AI. Power industry wants to build the bigger plant. They want to charge you more. They want to charge AI for it. and the AI data centers work it. So you have this mountain of lobbying pushing against the state bills that are being driven by citizens saying I don't
mind that we have AI but why does the data center have to be here why does my electricity have to go up in the process I'm not liking this can't we manage this better and that's exactly what the bills are trying to do and 100 moratoriums that are up there that are trying to be broken by the industry lobbyists for power and for technology that's exactly what's happening and it's a monstrous issue on the ballot this year. You saw just moments ago the rateayer pledge that the president has asked for that I think should be turned into firm legislation and number 301 should be a rateayer pledge that becomes hardened legislation that says you will pay for the power generation that you supplement
you will connect to the grid we can coexist and we can get there together but it takes leadership that's the AI and electricity story that you asked for and the stats, the numbers that were screaming that I dug up for you. If you'd like to see other things, leave a comment down below. Better yet, also subscribe and hit the bell so you get notifications that we're going to be there. I'm Tom Ellsworth with the Bisto and I love bringing you numbers screen. And as I like to say, I hope I left you better than I found you.
