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Household-equivalent electricity of the five largest AI data centers

How many average U.S. homes use as much electricity in a year as each of the largest AI data centers?

Coverage: Capacity estimates dated May 23 to August 1, 2026; household benchmark for 2022.

Node: dataset:largest-ai-data-centers-power:1:analysis:household-equivalents

Contained in Largest operating AI data centers: power capacity and household-equivalent electricity, mid-2026.

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What this dataset measures

The five facilities with the highest observed IT power capacity in Epoch AI's Frontier Data Centers data as of its August 31, 2026 update, the facilities a claim about 'the biggest AI data centers' refers to.

Geography
United States
Unit of observation
One AI data center campus at one estimate date
Update cadence
Irregular; revise when Epoch AI updates its estimates
Curator
FactHub Research Team

Saved analyses

Household-equivalent electricity of the five largest AI data centers

Question: How many average U.S. homes use as much electricity in a year as each of the largest AI data centers?

Result: At full IT load the five sites each match 341,763 to 767,951 U.S. homes; at half load, 170,882 to 383,976.

Operation: For each facility, convert IT power to annual energy and divide by 10,791 kWh per home, at full and at half IT load.

Scope: Five facilities in the largest-ai-dc table

View this analysis

  • Capacity figures are estimates and may be revised by Epoch AI.
  • Actual utilisation of each site is not public.

Sources

  1. Epoch AI, 'The record for power capacity in a single data center has doubled every 10 months' (Sep. 4, 2026), with its Frontier Data Centers data IT power capacity estimates and estimate dates for each facility

    Retrieved October 26, 2026. CC BY 4.0. Allowed with attribution to Epoch AI

    Reliability: Academic. Epoch AI is an independent nonprofit research group that estimates data center power from satellite imagery, permits and public documents. It does not own or operate data centers.

  2. U.S. Energy Information Administration, 'How much electricity does an American home use?' Average annual electricity sold per U.S. residential customer (10,791 kWh, 2022)

    Retrieved October 26, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted

    Reliability: Government. EIA is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy; the figure comes from utility sales reports.

Limitations and reproducibility

Fully reproducible: Every derived column is arithmetic on the observed IT power and the EIA household figure: annual GWh = MW x 8,760 hours / 1,000; households = MW x 8,760,000 kWh / 10,791 kWh, rounded to the nearest home; half-load households = full-load households / 2, rounded.

  • IT power capacity is Epoch AI's estimate from satellite imagery, permits and disclosures, not metered consumption.
  • IT power excludes cooling and power conversion, so whole-facility draw at a given IT load is higher.
  • Sites rarely run at full capacity all year; the half-load column illustrates a lower utilisation and is not a measured value.
  • The household benchmark is 2022 electricity sold per U.S. residential customer; homes with rooftop solar consume more than they buy.

Publications using this dataset

Version details

The exact citing versions, and the version of this dataset each cites.

  • Article largest-ai-data-centers-electricity — version 1 (published) cites version 1
  • Chart largest-ai-data-centers-homes — version 1 (published) cites version 1