This summer has already produced three answers to questions the data center industry would have preferred to leave theoretical.
In May, the PJM Interconnection — the grid operator serving data center-dense northern Virginia — received emergency authorization from the Energy Department to curtail power to data centers due to “atypically hot mid-May weather conditions.” In France, temperatures of 44.3C forced nuclear plants to shut down — the same plants Macron called the “heart” of France’s AI ambitions. And on Monday, Zurich Insurance disclosed that severe weather is now the leading cause of loss in its U.S. data center portfolio.
The questions: Can data centers actually hold up in a warming world? And has the industry priced that in?
Data centers are having a massive year. So far in 2026, the world’s largest companies operating data centers have committed at least $750 billion to the sector, compared to $450 billion last year, the early stages of more than $3 trillion in forecasted capital investments over the next five years, according to Moody’s.
That spending is now running directly into a stress test nobody scheduled.
