Trump sets up energy council to compete with China in AI

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has established a new energy council to tackle the growing electricity demands, aiming to strengthen the country’s position in its artificial intelligence rivalry with China.

"We’re going to be energy dominant like nobody else, and this doesn’t even cover all the electricity we’re going to be producing for all the AI plants," Trump told reporters as he signed the order.

"They need at least double the electricity we have right now," he added.

Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who also attended the signing, said, "The US is in an AI arms race with China. The only way we win is with more electricity."

According to the White House, the council will coordinate energy policy across federal agencies and streamline permitting, production, and distribution of various energy resources.

The move aligns with Trump’s campaign promise to "drill, baby, drill," boosting domestic oil and gas production and reversing any concerns from the Biden administration about carbon emissions or the impact on climate change.

The aim is also to counter potential rising costs from Trump’s trade wars, which could see energy prices increase once energy imports or US exports are hit with tariffs.

The demands of the AI industry for electric power are acute, with data servers already putting a heavy strain on the country’s overstretched electricity supply.

The supply of electric power in the United States has suffered from chronic underinvestment, exacerbated by ageing nuclear plants being taken offline.

Tech CEOs have been intensely lobbying the Trump administration to focus on the need for power to meet their AI demands.

By as soon as 2028, officials expect that tech companies will have AI training energy needs of as much as five gigawatts – enough to power roughly five million homes.