The world needs $4 trillion in annual data center and energy investments, says ADNOC’s CEO
Energy systems, power grids, and data centers will need investments totaling $4 trillion a year to support future economic growth, says H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of ADNOC. “We need massive capital investment. We are talking about more than $4 trillion annually to cover grids, data centres and all sources of energy supply.”
In addition to leading ADNOC, Al Jaber also serves as the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. “You can’t run tomorrow’s economy on yesterday’s grid,” he said in his keynote speech at the 41st Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).
Al Jaber stressed that large amounts of capital are necessary to upgrade the world’s energy infrastructure. Although global capital is available, he said, new financial systems must be created to ensure funding goes to the right projects.
He also talked about gas, saying it supplies 25% of data centers’ baseload power. The issue, according to Al Jaber, is a shortage of gas turbines, which is “turning a supply crunch into a choke point, pushing electricity prices higher.”
By 2050, we will need six million kilometers of new transmission lines, he noted. Additionally, electricity consumption, he said, will continue to rise through 2040 as the demand for power from data centers quadruples, 1.5 billion people move into cities, and more than two billion air conditioners come online.
Looking into the future, Al Jaber projected that renewable energy generation will more than double by 2040, liquefied natural gas output will increase by 50%, jet fuel demand will grow by over 30%, and oil consumption will stay above 100 million barrels per day beyond 2040 (current numbers hover around 103 million barrels a day according to the EIA).
According to Data Center Map, the UAE currently has the most data centers in the GCC, with 58, followed by Saudi Arabia with 51, and Oman in third place with 15. These figures are expected to grow, especially as this year saw the launch of HUMAIN by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the Stargate UAE project, and other investments, including Microsoft’s recent plan to invest $15 billion in AI in the UAE by 2029.
