By Tariq Al Hosani
As artificial intelligence accelerates at an unprecedented pace, a new global race is quietly unfolding. It is not a race for algorithms, nor for software dominance. It is a race for electricity.
Industry analysts predict that by 2026, major technology companies will be competing aggressively for energy resources, driven by rising demand from data centers, expanding AI infrastructure, and mounting pressure on aging power grids worldwide.
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a software innovation. It has become a strategic force powered by electricity. And whoever controls electricity controls the future of digital economies.
Behind the impressive interfaces and intelligent models that simulate human cognition lies a growing and increasingly critical challenge. The global power infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with the massive computational demands of AI. Data generation, processing, and storage now require unprecedented levels of energy, while traditional grids remain constrained by physical limits and regulatory frameworks.
This reality is forcing a strategic transformation among technology giants.
Eaton recently acquired Fiber Bond to reinforce electrical infrastructure capabilities. Meta has signed long-term power purchase agreements to secure reliable energy supplies for its expanding data centers. OpenAI has adopted a partnership-based model, leasing both computing capacity and energy while relying on infrastructure partners to manage grid and regulatory complexities.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has taken the most decisive step yet. The company has acquired the energy firm Intersect for 4.75 billion dollars in cash while assuming its outstanding debt. The move represents a fundamental shift from software dependency to direct ownership of power generation and distribution assets.
Industry experts view the transaction as more than a financial expansion. It is widely interpreted as a recognition that existing power grids are no longer sufficient to sustain the scale of the artificial intelligence revolution.
When an AI company acquires a power company, it signals a structural shift in the technology sector. Intelligence cannot operate without electricity. Control over transformers, substations, and sustainable power sources will increasingly determine which companies lead the next era of digital infrastructure.
As AI adoption expands across industries, technology firms are being forced to become energy companies in their own right. The future of artificial intelligence is now inseparable from the future of power generation.
Market observers expect that 2026 will see a wave of large-scale acquisitions and long-term energy investments driven not by ambition, but by necessity. The economics of AI are now bound by the laws of physics.
Google has described its strategy as a move to secure long-term stability through vertical integration and on-site power generation for its data centers. The company argues that this approach will protect users from price volatility and supply disruptions.
However, critics argue that the strategy reveals a deeper challenge. True technological independence, they say, is not achieved through asset acquisition alone, but through innovation in efficiency, storage, and sustainable power design.
Five billion dollars could have fueled breakthroughs in computing efficiency, battery technology, or next-generation energy systems. Instead, the faster path was chosen: purchasing physical infrastructure burdened with long-term debt.
Money may delay the consequences of structural challenges, but it does not eliminate them. Several technology firms have not solved the electricity problem. They have postponed it.
For Google, the implications go beyond balance sheets. The company is undergoing a fundamental identity shift, from a software and data leader into a utility-scale infrastructure operator. Every dollar invested in turbines and transmission lines is a dollar not invested in research laboratories where next-generation solutions could emerge.
What is unfolding is not a contest of algorithms.
It is a contest of power.
The distinction between leadership and ownership is becoming increasingly important. Leaders redefine problems. Capital merely purchases temporary solutions.
The central question remains unanswered: will these acquisitions safeguard artificial intelligence from future constraints, or do they expose the limits of the expectations placed upon it?
One reality is already clear. Artificial intelligence was never designed to overcome the laws of physics. It was designed to operate within them, at the highest possible level of efficiency.
Tariq Al Hosani
Chairman, Zero Gravity Group
Abu Dhabi
