"Power is probably the forever bottleneck": Grid delays threaten the AI race.

Silicon Valley moves fast and breaks things, but the U.S. electrical grid moves slowly and requires permits.The explosive growth of AI is colliding with the glacial pace of building out new power infrastructure, prompting a new warning from Goldman Sachs that energy bottlenecks are set to stall the AI race.Why it matters: Amid a wave of anxiety from Wall Street about the debt-fueled AI buildout, Goldman points to power as the biggest risk to trillions in spending in a new report shared exclusively with Axios. Driving the news: Goldman expects global data center power demand to surge 170% between 2025 and 2030, with more than 60% of that growth coming from the U.S., according to the report. "Power is probably the forever bottleneck," Jason Tofsky, Goldman's global head of digital infrastructure investment banking, noted in the report.The bank estimates roughly $7.6 trillion in capital spending between 2026 and 2031 across computing, data centers and power infrastructure.Zoom in: The physical infrastructure needed to support AI is moving far more slowly than the technology itself.The U.S. has roughly 2,600 gigawatts of proposed power generation and storage projects awaiting grid con…

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