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Utilities Plan to Spend $1.4 Trillion Over Next Five Years to Power AI Boom by Jennifer Hiller

William Attardi on April 14, 2026

U.S. utilities are planning a historic investment spree to patch up an aging power grid and meet rising electricity demand for the artificial-intelligence boom. Capital spending plans for 51 investor-owned utilities have reached an estimated $1.4 trillion for the next five years, according to a new report from PowerLines, a consumer education group. That is up more than 20% from a year ago, when the companies planned to spend about $1.1 trillion over a five-year period. The record levels of capital investments are being driven by fresh demand on an aging electricity system that already needed upgrades. Unlike any prior customer, new AI data centers can consume the same amount of electricity as an entire city, with high demand around the clock. Beyond AI, many utilities are trying to keep up with growth in manufacturing, electric vehicles and residential markets, too. Utilities Plan to Spend $1.4 Trillion Over Next Five Years to Power AI Boom – WSJ

Hitachi to Invest $1 Billion to Produce Power Grid Components in US by Laila Kearney

William Attardi on September 5, 2025

Hitachi plans to invest $1 billion to expand its U.S. power grid infrastructure manufacturing, its energy unit said on Thursday, as the country faces record electricity demand from Big Tech’s build-out of AI data centers. The U.S. holds the biggest concentration in the world of data centers, which are expected to triple their energy use to consume about 12% of the domestic power supply in less than three years. As a result, many utilities are ramping up spending on the long-stagnating electrical grid. Nearly half of Hitachi Energy’s latest investment, or $457 million, will go towards building a new facility in South Boston, Virginia, to manufacture large power transformers. The facility will be the biggest U.S. producer of the massive transformers, which can run as large as a two-story home, Hitachi said.  Hitachi to invest $1 billion to produce power grid components in US | Reuters

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind – The last time human beings headed moonward was on the Apollo 17 flight that launched Dec. 7, 1972—before any of the Artemis II crew members were born. Today’s crew will not land on the moon—they won’t even orbit the moon. But they will whip around the lunar far side, on a shakedown mission test-flying the Orion spacecraft. This is essential preparatory work for achieving NASA’s bigger lunar goals. Next year there will be another test flight in low Earth orbit during the flight of Artemis III, followed by up to two moon landings by Artemis IV and V in 2028, and annual landings thereafter. Unlike the Apollo program, Artemis aims not just for the so-called flags-and-footprints model of short, one- to three-day stays on the moon, but for a long-term presence at a long-term moon base in the south lunar pole, where deposits of ice can provide drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and oxygen-hydrogen rocket fuel. Very much like the Apollo program, Artemis finds itself in a closely watched moon race, not with the old Soviet Union this time, but with China, which has announced its intention to have astronauts on the moon by 2030. The U.S. is not going it alone this time, however. While Apollo was an entirely American enterprise, Artemis flies under the flag of 60 countries, signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international pact whose members vow to support the peaceful exploration of space and contribute money, modules, and astronauts to the Artemis cause. Artemis II Has Launched. Here’s Everything You Need to Know