Since June, the largest US grid fell short of what it needs for a third year, federal regulators intervened, and Virginia taxed data-centre power.

Google's brain drain, Anthropic's distillation complaint, and a compute land-grab showed AI's scarce assets are now talent and physical plant rather than the model.

AI data centers are reshaping power from the demand side, pushing US capacity prices to records and making firm electricity an operator's most valuable asset.

Markets stopped rewarding AI layoffs, Google triggered a model price war, Washington shelved AI oversight, and Europe's energy costs priced it out of the buildout.