News Brief

August 25, 2026

AI boom makes U.S. top builder of new gas-fired power plants

The U.S. has surpassed China with the number of new gas-fired power plants in the queue, with about a third of them Texas.

According to an analysis by Global Energy Monitor, the U.S. has 189 gigawatts of gas-fired either proposed or under construction to provide power directly to data centers for the artificial intelligence industry.

Counting all proposed or under-construction gas power plants, the U.S. has 378 gigawatts of capacity in the lineup. China, the country with the second-most gas-fired capacity in the pipeline, has 132 gigawatts of capacity announced, awaiting construction, or under construction.

About a third of these projects – adding up to 122 gigawatts – are proposed for Texas, which saw a 41-percent increase in these projects in the last six months. Facing political pressure over the facilities’ water and power demands, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a former data center supporter, imposed a construction moratorium on new data centers earlier this month.

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