Rubbish Check
Forbes Business · 23 August 2026
source“The U.S. Now Uses Nearly 40% Of The World’s Data Center Electricity”
R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
12345678910
In short
Rubbish Talk rates Forbes' claim that the U.S. uses "nearly 40%" of world data-center electricity a 2/10 because the figure, 39.7% in 2025, comes straight from the Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review and matches the article's own data without embellishment.
The Verdict
Base fact, lightly rounded. The headline states a real, sourced number, 39.7% rounds cleanly to "nearly 40%", and the article immediately backs it with the full breakdown by country. There's no inflation, no cherry-picked comparison year, and no missing caveat that would change the reader's takeaway. The only reason this isn't a flat R1 is the rounding itself nudges a precise 39.7% into a rounder, slightly punchier "nearly 40%" for headline effect, a one-step stylistic choice rather than a distortion.
What actually happened
The Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy reported global data-center electricity data for the first time in its 75-year history, using S&P Global Energy figures. Worldwide data-center electricity demand reached 787.8 terawatt-hours in 2025, up from 658.2 TWh in 2024, an increase of nearly 20% in a single year. Within that total, the U.S. share is the largest of any country by a wide margin.
Key facts
- Global data-center electricity demand reached 787.8 TWh in 2025, up from 658.2 TWh in 2024, a nearly 20% one-year rise.
- U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 312.6 TWh in 2025, representing 39.7% of the global total, per the article's citation of the Energy Institute/S&P Global Energy data.
- China ranked second at 205.7 TWh (26.1%), Europe third at 144.6 TWh (18.4%).
- U.S. consumption rose from 249.0 TWh in 2024 to 312.6 TWh in 2025, a 63.5 TWh gain, roughly 49% of the entire global increase that year.
- Global data-center demand has risen about 92% since 2020, U.S. demand about 81% over the same period, with a 25.5% jump in 2025 alone marking an acceleration.
What to watch for
Watch whether the U.S. share keeps climbing or plateaus as China's own AI buildout accelerates, since a shift in that ratio would be the real story next year. Also worth tracking: PJM's forecast 5.4% annual peak-demand growth over the coming decade and whether transmission bottlenecks (congestion costs already up 43% in PJM in H1 2026) become the binding constraint before generation does.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
