Constellation CEO says US not ‘going to win’ race with China on building out energy for AI

Constellation Energy Group CEO Joseph Dominguez warned at the Semafor World Economy forum in Washington, D.C. that the United States is "very behind" China in developing the necessary energy infrastructure for rapidly expanding AI data centers. He asserted that if the strategy is simply to build power plants as quickly as China, the U.S. will fail, noting China's significant capacity additions since 2010. Dominguez, whose company recently closed a $16 billion acquisition of Calpine Energy and inked multibillion-dollar deals to supply AI data centers, emphasized the urgency of the situation. Dominguez argued that the U.S. could catch up by utilizing its existing grid more efficiently, leveraging the current less industrialized state of the country where power demand is not constant. He suggested that better management of peak energy demands could reveal significant unused capacity, potentially leading to lower energy prices for consumers. Addressing local opposition to data center construction, the CEO stated that "NIMBYism" could cause the U.S. to lose the AI race, posing a direct threat to national security and the American way of life. He called for a unified national policy for power projects instead of fragmented state-by-state approvals. Dominguez also highlighted the increasing public approval for nuclear power, contrasting it with lower public support for data centers, despite their critical role in national competitiveness.