The engine of the AI boom is one of society's most unappreciated and complicated things: Electricity.

Why it matters: Understanding how power fuels AI and its effect on ourselves and our economy is essential to comprehending our new world order.

Driving the news: I wanted to determine simple answers to these complicated questions.

• How historic is this energy boom?
• Where have power prices been — and where are they going?
• What kind of electricity is actually powering our AI, and do we have enough?
• AI feels like magic, but I know it's not, so how does it actually work?

How it works: I worked with Axios' amazing visuals team to use charts and infographics to find the answers to the above questions.

What's next: What do you want to know more about? Let me know: [email protected].

This might be our first AI race, but it's not America's first power boom.

Why it matters: The latest boom in power is scrambling our communities, politics and power bills, with Big Tech companies making promises seeking to ease said scramble.

The big picture: The U.S. has been able to meet soaring electricity demand in decades past at even higher growth rates than what experts are predicting now.

Yes, but: "One must keep in mind that the magnitude of current load is far above that of the '70s and '80s," said power expert and consultant Rob Gramlich, president of consulting firm Grid Strategies LLC.

The magnitude is "relatively large and possibly unprecedented," Gramlich said by email.

Zoom out: "Every technology that has required a major infrastructure expansion has involved precisely the kinds of questions that we're facing here," Microsoft President Brad Smith told Axios' Ina Fried about his company's recently stated pledge to not burden locals with its data centers.

• "Private companies cannot solve all the issues by themselves, but they can make it easier when they take a high road," Smith said.

Yes, national average power prices have risen, but no, not as much as President Trump said.

Why it matters: With plug prices the political term du jour this election year, sifting through arcane power price data will be important to find the facts.

Driving the news: In a Truth Social post this week, Trump claimed household utility bills rose "over 30%" under President Biden.

Where it stands: National electricity prices rose 4.7%, when adjusted for inflation, during Biden's term, with a noticeable uptick in 2022, alongside the early boom in AI.

Between the lines: Without adjusting for inflation, that 4.7% figure rises to 25.8%, far closer to Trump's claim.

Zoom in: Some states — particularly those in the Mid-Atlantic where a lot of data centers are being built — are seeing higher price spikes than the national average.

Reality check: Similar to gasoline prices, electricity prices go up and down for a variety of complex reasons, often not correlating much at all with the sitting president.

What we're watching: Prices are continuing to rise under Trump, including in the nation's capital.

The Energy Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A trio of factors have helped keep national average power prices in check over the last 15 years, but don't expect this to last much longer.

The big picture: Even though electricity prices rose in dollar terms almost everywhere since 2010, inflation rose faster.

• That means power became cheaper in real terms in much of the country.

How it works: Three factors have been driving this trend, per Gramlich.

• Flat power demand, which is now rising and hiking prices.
• Cheap natural gas, whose costs are forecast to rise by next year.
• Falling renewable costs.

The intrigue: Not much unites the states when it comes to electricity, considering how arcane and regionally different electricity markets are.

• "Some states like Nevada, Texas, and Iowa seem to be experiencing the consumer savings that come with large-scale renewable energy deployment," Gramlich said when Axios shared the map for his insight.
• "Other states like California seem to be experiencing the effects of tens of billions of dollars of wildfire-related expenditures that get included in utility bills."

What we're watching: As so many news outlets — including us! — have reported, power prices are now going up for several reasons, including data center demand and system maintenance.

Natural gas is filling the biggest role fueling electricity for data centers in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest — the country's AI hotbed — but the region is still staring down a huge shortfall in power.

Why it matters: Society faces the risk of spiking power prices or — worse — no power at all if this gap isn't resolved by either adding more power or fewer data centers.

How it works: The chart above illustrates what's known as the effective load carrying capability, or ELCC.

• This is a method that grid operators use to measure how much an energy resource — such as renewables or natural gas — can reliably contribute to meeting power demand at times when the grid is most at risk of shortages.
• As wind and solar grow on the grid, ELCC provides a more precise way to assess how much dependable capacity they actually add, accounting for their variability.
• That's unlike traditional resources such as natural gas, which can generally be dispatched on demand, according to a spokesperson for BloombergNEF.

Context: Measured by nameplate capacity — the maximum power a plant is rated to produce under ideal conditions — planned supply additions of variable wind and solar appear far larger.

• But much of that capacity doesn't reliably show up during peak demand. ELCC adjusts for that reality.
• It's the difference between food on grocery store shelves and food on your plate when you're hungry. When demand peaks, the grid needs electricity that can actually be delivered — not just capacity that exists in theory. Timing matters.

Zoom in: The chart is focused on the PJM grid system, which provides power to 67 million people in 13 states. It shows two big things:

• Natural gas currently does the most to narrow the projected power gap, compared with wind, solar and other resources.
• A sizable shortfall remains through the end of the decade.

What we're watching: That picture could change to the degree long-duration energy storage — capable of storing large amounts of electricity for days or longer at affordable cost — scales.

• Google is pursuing this with startup Energy Dome in Europe, for example.

Full story

AI feels like magic — largely because most of us don't understand how it really works.

Why it matters: This infographic breaks down the process so this technology — which is becoming as commonplace as the Internet — feels more real and less magical.

The bottom line: AI's "magic" is actually a giant stack of energy, hardware and software working together so your computer can turn a few typed words into a giant cat sightseeing in Seattle (scroll down!).