The surge in artificial intelligence has not only caused a shortage of computing power but also placed the US power grid under unprecedented severe challenges. According to TechCrunch, the Tahoe Lake area in California, once a favorite vacation spot for Silicon Valley elites, is now facing an urgent energy crisis and must find a new power supplier within a year.

For a long time, the region's electricity has been mainly supplied by NV Energy, but the power supply agreement between the two parties will officially expire in May 2027. At that time, this power giant will reclaim all the electricity previously supplied to Lake Tahoe and redirect it towards the rapidly emerging AI data centers within Nevada.

Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity

Although the relevant power companies claim that this contract termination is the result of long-term planning and not entirely due to large models, the extreme hunger for electricity by data centers is undoubtedly the core driver. Currently, just one power company, NV Energy, has received data center electricity applications exceeding 22 gigawatts, a number that is more than 40 times the peak electricity consumption of the Lake Tahoe area.

In the context where AI giants are willing to spend heavily to obtain electricity, traditional ordinary communities have no competitive advantage in the battle for power and can only face the plight of being cut off. Similar situations are unfolding across the western United States. Recently, Utah also approved a data center project covering 40,000 acres, with an electricity consumption of up to 9 gigawatts, directly exceeding twice the total electricity consumption of the entire state.

Silicon Valley elites may have to re-consider their electricity bills

The geographical location of Lake Tahoe makes this crisis more complex, as its power grid lines connect more with Nevada than California, meaning local residents find it difficult to directly draw power from the California grid. The permanent residents of Lake Tahoe and Silicon Valley tech executives who have purchased vacation homes there will soon have to face the harsh reality of finding a new supplier and facing a significant increase in electricity bills.

This energy squeeze triggered by artificial intelligence reveals the high social costs behind technological development. Ordinary people who have no say in the rise of large models have now become the first victims paying for AI's high energy consumption, and this wave of price increases and power shortages has just begun.