Trend · rank 144 of 250

Data-centre power & water demand

Electricity, cooling and water demand from AI and cloud data centres is rising sharply and concentrating in particular places, straining local grids and shaping where digital capacity and industry can locate.

Strategic InfrastructureEnergy, networks & climate resiliencepowercomputewater

Second pass: Carried forward from the first pass, where it was Data-centre power demand. Held by all three panel models.

Sensitivity and network position

Rank
144of 250
Sensitivity
9.2rank 121
Breadth
1of 20 scenarios High or above
PageRank
21.4rank 202
Eigenvector
0.7
Betweenness
25.4
Links
9trends at Moderate similarity or above
Composite
18.5

Attention over three years

How much this trend is read about on Wikipedia and searched for on Google, week by week, set against the typical trend in the list so that what moves every trend at once is taken out. 100 is this trend's own three-year average. The score measures public attention, which is not the same as the strength of the force: a trend can deepen unnoticed, and a news event can lift attention for a fortnight.

Now
209
Over a year
+67%Surging
Over three years
+336%
Peak
27019 Jul 2026
Sources
Bothagreement 0.82
Coverage
22languages · 50 nations

Trailing 4-week average. 100 is this trend’s three-year average.

By language

Wikipedia reading in each language edition where the trend’s pages are read enough to measure (22 of 28). Share is of all the readers counted.

LanguageShareNowOver a yearThree years
English65%219+101%
French8%178+144%
Russian6%199+128%
Japanese5%151+42%
German4%188+96%
Spanish2%148+52%
Chinese2%182+87%
Italian2%171+116%
Portuguese1%108+2%
Korean1%200+120%
Persian1%103+25%
Dutch0%216+150%
Indonesian0%165+73%
Polish0%295+284%
Ukrainian0%294+264%
Arabic0%185+70%
Turkish0%158+62%
Vietnamese0%130+11%
Hebrew0%175+80%
Swedish0%174+98%
Thai0%144+102%
Malay0%223+150%

By country

Google search interest over the three years, as a share of each country’s searching. 100 is the nation where interest is highest. The search terms are English, which favours countries that search in English.

South Korea

Singapore

United States

Netherlands

Taiwan

Australia

Japan

Canada

Israel

United Arab Emirates

New Zealand

United Kingdom

100

85

35

27

25

20

19

18

17

17

16

15

The 12 highest of 50 nations with a reading.

By region and G20 member

Attention to this trend inside each place, from Google searches made in its countries and Wikipedia reading in the languages mostly read there, averaged where both exist. Each line compares the trend with its own past in that place; the lines do not compare places.

Regions

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
North AmericaGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in English218−5%+110%+637%
EuropeGoogle in 6 countries + Wikipedia in German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Swedish197+7%+157%+236%
ChinaGoogle in 1 country133+7%+39%+48%
Indo-PacificGoogle in 6 countries + Wikipedia in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Malay151−3%+43%+155%
South AsiaGoogle in 1 country185−50%+314%+1132%
Gulf and Middle EastGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew146+10%+37%+96%
Latin America and CaribbeanWikipedia in Spanish, Portuguese130+20%+28%+65%
Russia and EurasiaWikipedia in Russian, Ukrainian217+55%+152%+301%

G20 members

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
BrazilWikipedia in Portuguese108+32%+2%+44%
CanadaGoogle239−33%+314%0%
ChinaGoogle133+7%+39%+48%
FranceGoogle + Wikipedia in French224+16%+293%+264%
GermanyGoogle + Wikipedia in German159+26%+54%+113%
IndiaGoogle185−50%+314%+1132%
IndonesiaGoogle + Wikipedia in Indonesian131+47%+44%+33%
ItalyGoogle + Wikipedia in Italian184−9%+177%+183%
JapanGoogle + Wikipedia in Japanese156−5%+48%+212%
South KoreaGoogle + Wikipedia in Korean180−14%+55%+333%
RussiaWikipedia in Russian199+39%+128%+266%
TürkiyeGoogle + Wikipedia in Turkish152+2%+47%+152%
United KingdomGoogle254−9%+346%+4136%
United StatesGoogle + Wikipedia in English214−1%+94%+574%

Relation to each scenario

A trend relates to a scenario when it changes how likely the scenario is, how hard it lands, or is itself sharply changed by it. Each score is the median of three scores given separately by the members of the model panel.

RelationScenarioFamily
4 · HighCheap firm clean power becomes available at scale S15 ↗Energy, climate and resources
3 · ModerateAn AI deployment step causes abrupt labour displacement S08Technology and infrastructure
2 · LowHybrid coercion ends in an infrastructure blackout S04Geopolitical and security
2 · LowAI-directed research produces a reproducible discovery step S17 ↗Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedCritical trade divides into rival blocs S01Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA global funding seizure reaches sovereign balance sheets S02Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA regional war closes a globally important sea route S03Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA disputed transfer of power breaks effective government S05Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedTwo breadbasket failures trigger a food availability crisis S06Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA major disaster disables the national economic core S07Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA cryptographic breakthrough invalidates digital trust S09Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedA novel respiratory pathogen exceeds health surge capacity S10Health
0 · Not relatedA creditor agreement releases fiscal capacity S11 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA cross-regional market access compact redirects investment S12 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA great-power agreement lowers economic security barriers S13 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA verified Middle East settlement restores access S14 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA validated farming package raises water-efficient output S16 ↗Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA public service platform reaches inclusive operation S18 ↗Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedAffordable preventive treatments reduce chronic illness S19 ↗Health
0 · Not relatedA live outbreak proves rapid distributed pandemic defence S20 ↗Health

Similarity = 0.3 × shared tags (Jaccard) + 0.3 × likeness of scenario profiles (cosine) + 0.3 × likeness of names and descriptions (TF-IDF cosine) + 0.1 if in the same capability domain, cut into seven levels at 0.12, 0.22, 0.33, 0.45, 0.58, 0.72. Shown at Moderate and above.

SimilarityTrendThemeRank
3 · ModerateElectrification of heat & industryEnergy, networks & climate resilience70
3 · ModerateDistributed powerEnergy, networks & climate resilience81
3 · ModerateWater treatment & desalinationEnergy, networks & climate resilience89
3 · ModerateFirm & black-start capacityEnergy, networks & climate resilience119
3 · ModerateRenewable generation expansionEnergy, networks & climate resilience128
3 · ModerateGrid expansion & demand flexibilityEnergy, networks & climate resilience131
3 · ModerateCompute scaling & AI infrastructureAI, compute & quantum133
3 · ModerateAI inference efficiencyAI, compute & quantum170
3 · ModerateReliable energy access gapsEnergy, networks & climate resilience197