If there’s any question about whether data centers are driving the global economy, a new report from the International Energy Agency should dispel any doubts. This year, the world will spend $580 billion on data centers, $40 billion more than it will spend on new oil supplies.

“This point of comparison provides a telling marker of the changing nature of modern, highly digitalized economies,” the agency said in the report .

Electricity consumption from AI data centers is expected to grow fivefold by the end of the decade, doubling the total used by all data centers today. Conventional data centers will also consume more energy, though the increase won’t be nearly as dramatic.

Fully half of that demand growth is expected to occur in the U.S., the IEA said, with the bulk of the remainder

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