Wells Fargo predicts AI power demand to skyrocket by 8050% by 2030

Wells Fargo is projecting that AI power demand will surge by an incredible 8050% by 2030, from 8TWh in 2024 up to an incredible 652TWh in 2030.

The world of AI is exploding in more ways than one, with the power consumption of today's high-end AI GPUs like the NVIDIA H100 AI GPU where the H100 in SXM form factor using 700W of power alone. Moving over to NVIDIA's next-generation B200 AI GPU, which will use up to 1200W of power per AI GPU, we can see how these AI power demands are going to get out of control.

AMD's previous-gen Instinct MI250 AI accelerators draw a peak of 560W of power, while the new MI300X AI accelerator from the company consumes 750W at peak, a 50% increase gen-over-gen. Intel doesn't get out of this either, with its new Gaudi 2 AI accelerator using 600W, its new Gaudi 3 AI accelerator uses 900W of power at peak (another 50% increase).

Intel's next-generation Falcon Shore hybrid AI processor uses even more power, the most in the industry, with an astounding 1500W peak power per chip. Insanity. But then moving back to NVIDIA, and its upcoming GB200 Superchip, which has 2 x B200 GPUs and 1 x Grace CPU, which will consume an astonishing 2700W of power... so Wells Fargo's projections on AI power demand scaling through 2030 by 8050% is a scary number indeed.

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I do wonder, we saw everyone chiming in about their worries on the power usage and environment during the crypto-mining boom, but barely a peep of environmental concern over these staggering, absolutely staggering AI power demands now, but more so into the future. We're going to need nuclear power plants all over the place -- or some form of next-generation power technology.

• Read more: Rolls-Royce teases Micro-Reactor: zero-emission power through advanced nuclear technology

This is something Rolls-Royce recently teased with it's Micro-Reactor, a zero-emission power solution using "advanced nuclear technology". You can read more about that above, but I'd love to see what Rolls-Royce could do to take some of the power-related issues that AI demand is pushing the world into and being used for good.