AI's Power Crunch Reshapes Energy Business, From Cooling Deals to Saudi Moves
As AI data centers strain the grid, an oil-services giant buys into cooling, a startup relocates to Saudi Arabia, and a new PAC fights backlash at home.
What happened: Three separate moves this week show how AI's hunger for electricity is remaking the energy business. Oilfield giant SLB agreed to pay $4.1 billion for Kelvion, a cooling-systems maker owned by Apollo funds, pushing deeper into data-center services. Separately, U.S. startup Together AI struck a deal with Saudi state-backed Humain for access to 250 megawatts of power from data centers inside the kingdom. And a pro-AI advocacy group, Build American AI, launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to fight data-center opposition in battleground states.
Why it matters: Training and running AI models takes enormous amounts of electricity and cooling capacity, and the U.S. grid and local communities are increasingly pushing back. A Gallup poll found 48% of Americans strongly oppose new data centers near them, versus just 7% strongly in favor. That backlash is now shaping real business decisions: companies are buying into cooling infrastructure, shifting projects overseas where power and land are easier to secure, and spending political money to change the terms of the fight at home.
How it works, plainly: SLB's purchase of Kelvion gives it hardware to cool the servers packed into data centers, a growing revenue stream as oilfield work slows. Together AI's Saudi deal taps cheap, plentiful power and a government eager to diversify beyond oil; Humain, founded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has similar tie-ups with AWS, Microsoft and xAI. Meanwhile Build American AI, linked to super PAC Leading the Future, is spending from a $50 million war chest on ads and grassroots outreach to reframe data centers as local economic wins.
The rollout: Build American AI's campaign starts in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, with plans to expand as states write 2027 data-center legislation; it's also launching a new super PAC to back friendly candidates. Together AI's Saudi capacity comes as Humain expands rapidly, even as strikes tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict have hit AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain. Brookings has warned that building frontier AI infrastructure in the Gulf carries real security tradeoffs. SLB expects its Kelvion deal to close on a standard regulatory timeline.