Wright, NVIDIA Exec Say AI Will Build Energy It Needs
WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and NVIDIA Vice President Ian Buck argued Thursday that artificial intelligence will help build the energy infrastructure it requires to operate, speaking at the SCSP AI+ Expo.
The two spoke during a 30-minute fireside chat titled “Powering the Next American Century,” moderated by Special Competitive Studies Project president Ylli Bajraktari. The event, hosted by the national security-focused think tank, brought together government and industry leaders to discuss the intersection of AI and U.S. strategic interests.
Wright and Buck argued that rather than viewing AI’s growing energy demands as a barrier, the technology itself can accelerate the development of new power generation and grid infrastructure, according to NVIDIA’s account of the discussion published on the company’s blog.
The framing reflects a broader policy position within the Trump administration, which has prioritized both AI development and domestic energy production as pillars of economic strategy. Wright, a former energy industry executive, has been an advocate for expanding U.S. energy capacity to meet surging demand from data centers and AI workloads.
NVIDIA, a leading supplier of AI training and inference chips, has a direct commercial interest in expanding the energy supply available for data center construction. The company’s graphics processing units power the vast majority of AI model training worldwide, making energy availability a key constraint on its market growth.
The SCSP, founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has positioned itself as a prominent voice on AI’s role in national security and economic competitiveness. The organization has consistently argued that the United States must move aggressively to maintain its lead in AI development over geopolitical rivals, particularly China.
The discussion comes as utilities, tech companies and policymakers grapple with projections that U.S. data center power consumption could more than double by the end of the decade. Major AI companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon have signed agreements to develop new nuclear, solar and natural gas capacity specifically to power AI operations.
The Energy Department has taken steps to streamline permitting for new power generation and transmission projects, though critics have raised concerns about the environmental impact of rapidly expanding fossil fuel infrastructure to meet AI demand.
