According to a report by The New York Times on Tuesday, some AI data centers, which have been waiting for years in line for grid connection and new turbines, have now begun to generate their own power using modified jet engines.
These engines originally came from retired aircraft and have been modified to burn natural gas. They are clearly not what anyone would consider permanent power plants, but they also reflect the extent to which the power supply lags behind the construction boom of AI.
For companies trapped in these queues, the biggest attraction of converting to jet engines lies in the fast deployment speed. Analyst Audun Martinsen told The New York Times: “It’s all about getting power as soon as possible.” He stated that using jet engines for power supply “can get data centers up and running within 24 months.”
In contrast, according to the International Energy Agency, it will take about seven years to connect 100 megawatts to the power grid in North Virginia. A senior executive from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Power Systems told Bloomberg last week that it is expected that most of the additional power capacity will not be available until 2031.
In some cases, these delays have caused some data center operators to lose business. Last month, Microsoft withdrew from its role as the main tenant of a data center located in Luton, Nscale, UK, after local utility companies stated that they would not be able to provide sufficient electricity until the early to mid-2030s.
The New York Times, citing state-level permit documents and satellite imagery, reported that Elon Musk's xAI is already using such engines. Eight modified jet engine turbines have been installed in Mississippi to power its two data centers located in Memphis, known as Colossus. These units come from ProEnergy, which has re-engineered a type of GE engine commonly found on Boeing aircraft.
In 2025, OpenAI will follow in Elon Musk's footsteps by using gas turbines in its first Stargate project located in Abilene, Texas. AI, a data center construction startup based in Denver, is building this Abilene campus and ordered 13 ProEnergy modified units in April.
In September, Crusoe abandoned a deal worth $1.25 billion, which originally involved purchasing 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic. Boom Supersonic is a startup company that is developing supersonic aircraft and has also begun selling a version of these aircraft engines as power generation equipment for data centers. A spokesperson for Crusoe stated at the time to TechCrunch that the company still plans to use the turbines.
Currently, the Trump administration is also increasing pressure to encourage data centers to generate their own power.
However, there are trade-offs when it comes to modifying jet engines: According to The New York Times, these modified engines are less efficient than turbines designed specifically for traditional gas power plants, and they also cause more pollution. Moreover, it takes more of these engines to generate the same amount of electricity. Some experts believe that this may ultimately make modified jet engines a short-term solution, as efficiency and environmental issues are likely to become more significant within one or two years.
