US Data Centers Could Burn More Natural Gas Than Germany and Japan Combined by 2035
News Summary
A new analysis from BloombergNEF, reported by TechCrunch on September 15, 2026 (Eastern Time), projects that data centers across the United States could burn roughly 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2035 to keep pace with surging AI compute demand — a figure that would put US data centers ahead of the combined natural gas consumption of Germany and Japan, two of the world's largest industrialized economies. The forecast nearly doubles a projection BloombergNEF issued just nine months earlier, illustrating how quickly expectations for AI-driven energy demand have escalated over the past year.
The Numbers Behind the Forecast
According to the BloombergNEF analysis, grid-connected data centers are expected to drive an additional 15 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas demand through the power sector by 2035. On top of that, data center operators building their own onsite gas power plants — a strategy several major technology companies have pursued to bypass grid interconnection delays — could add another 2.9 to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day. Combined, this places total projected data center-linked gas demand at approximately 18 billion cubic feet per day within roughly a decade.
For scale, that additional demand from grid-connected data centers alone is estimated to be five times larger than the combined demand growth from every other grid-connected sector in the US economy through 2035, underscoring how concentrated the coming surge in electricity and fuel demand will be around AI infrastructure.
How the US Would Compare to Germany and Japan
Germany's entire economy — its furnaces, factories, and power plants combined — consumes roughly 9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Analysts note that the 15 billion cubic feet per day of new demand growth projected for grid-connected data centers alone already exceeds Germany's total national gas consumption. When onsite data center power plants are factored in as well, the combined US data center total of about 18 billion cubic feet per day would surpass the combined daily consumption of Germany and Japan, two economies that together represent a substantial share of global industrial gas use.
Broader comparisons using US Energy Information Administration data show that a 15 billion cubic feet per day demand increase alone would be more gas than is currently consumed by every nation in the world except China, Russia, Iran, and the United States itself. Some coverage of the BloombergNEF findings has similarly noted that US data centers could become the world's fifth-largest natural gas consumer as a standalone category by 2035, ranking alongside entire nations rather than individual industrial sectors.
Why Data Centers Are Turning to Natural Gas
The push toward gas-fired power reflects a practical bottleneck in the US electricity system: renewable and grid capacity additions have not kept pace with the explosive growth in demand from AI training and inference workloads. Large technology companies — including Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon — have each announced plans for onsite natural gas power plants at data center campuses, allowing them to secure dedicated electricity supply without waiting years for utility grid interconnection queues to clear. Natural gas offers a combination of relatively fast construction timelines, dispatchable output that can match the continuous power draw of AI data centers, and existing supply infrastructure, making it an attractive near-term option even as companies simultaneously pursue nuclear, solar, and other lower-emission power sources for the longer term.
Emissions and Grid Implications
The International Energy Agency estimates that burning natural gas produces roughly 60 grams of carbon dioxide per cubic foot. Applied to the projected 15 billion cubic feet per day of new grid-connected demand, analysts calculate this could generate close to 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per day, equivalent to roughly 12 percent of current total US emissions. Beyond emissions, the scale of new demand is also expected to influence natural gas prices and electricity rates more broadly, as utilities and regional grid operators plan new gas-fired generation and pipeline capacity to serve data center campuses alongside existing residential and industrial customers.
What Comes Next
The BloombergNEF projection adds to a growing body of research tracking how AI infrastructure buildout is reshaping US energy markets. Industry observers expect continued announcements of new gas power plant projects tied to data center campuses over the coming years, alongside parallel investment in nuclear restarts, small modular reactors, and renewable generation as technology companies seek to diversify their power supply and manage the climate impact of their AI operations. Energy analysts and utility regulators are likely to watch closely how this demand growth affects natural gas pricing, pipeline infrastructure planning, and electricity rates for households and businesses that share the same grid as data center campuses.