Data, power and dollars: financing the AI energy boom | live from the ACORE finance forum in New York

About this episode

This episode discusses the intersection of AI, data centres, and energy finance, featuring insights from industry experts at the ACORE Finance Forum in New York.

The numbers are staggering. The “magnificent seven” Big Tech companies are expected to have combined capital spending of about $800 billion this year. Data centres’ electricity demand is soaring, and hundreds of billions of dollars more are being mobilised to invest in power infrastructure to meet that demand. In this special episode, recorded at the ACORE Finance Forum in New York, host Ed Crooks speaks with five guests at the heart of the revolution in energy finance: bankers, a deal lawyer, a data centre operator and a head of policy.  James Wright, Managing Director and Head of US Corporate Banking at CIBC Capital Markets, explains the connection between power, data centres and AI with an analogy borrowed from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Think of AI as a layer cake, with power as the base, data centre infrastructure above it, then hardware, then AI models, and the applications as the icing on top. For banks like CIBC, it is those bottom two layers that matter most. James explains how power developers and data centre builders are increasingly converging. Gas, solar and battery storage are driving the bulk of activity in new power generation, though gas turbine supply chains…

People in this episode

Host: Ed Crooks

Guest: James Wright

Topics covered

• energy finance
• AI
• data centres
• power infrastructure
• investment
• technology

Keywords

• energy finance
• AI
• data centres
• investment
• power infrastructure
• CIBC
• Nvidia
• solar
• battery storage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nvidia, ACORE, CIBC Capital Markets

Products: AI, solar, battery storage, gas

Places: New York

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