One of the most important AI stories of 2026 is unfolding off-screen. Data centres already use about 1.5% of the world's electricity, and that could more than double by 2030, which is why AI projects now plan around energy as much as chips. Supply chains feel it too, as China's controls on rare earths and minerals like indium ripple through advanced-chip production amid shifting US–China trade talks. And as compute grows more strategically important, more than 60 nations are pursuing "sovereign AI."
Data centres' share of world electricity, today0%
Bar scale 0–4% of global electricity. Source: IEA via Brookings (April 2026).
Read together, these are less a cause for alarm than a sign of maturity: AI is now being treated as real infrastructure, with the investment, energy innovation and local capability that follow. IDC expects most multinationals to run AI across multiple sovereign zones by the end of the decade.
AI is becoming an infrastructure and jurisdiction decision as much as a software one.
For enterprises, the lesson is simple: where your data lives, how it's governed, and who controls the stack matter more than they used to. We treat that as something to work through with customers, not a box to tick. Our agents are built to run inside your existing data and governance boundaries, including when information has to stay in-region.
Sources: Brookings / IEA on data-centre energy (April 2026); CNBC on US–China chips and rare earths (May 2026); IDC FutureScape and Atlantic Council on sovereign AI (2026).