Photo credit: Neda Shirazi
A version of this story was published in the AI-Energy Nexus newsletter on August 26, 2026. Subscribe to get pieces like this — plus expert analysis, original reporting, and curated resources — in your inbox every Wednesday.
The U.S.’ resurgent passion for building new gas infrastructure is quickly putting the U.S. at risk of reversing any emissions cuts we’ve achieved so far — and it’s mostly down to data centers.
Consider the news that came out just last week. The mammoth data center being developed by SB Energy in Pike County, Ohio, boasting eight gigawatts of IT capacity, has a tenant: OpenAI. The facility will be supported by 10 GW of new energy capacity, 9.2 GW of which will be gas generation, according to the project’s website.
This would make it one of the largest, if not the largest, gas power plants in the U.S. Amazon and Pacifico Energy’s planned 7.65-GW off-grid facility in Pecos County, Texas, comes in second.
