Global grid investment is being driven by power and data
Five charts to start your day
For $10 a month, or $100 a year, you support a simple mission: spread great data visualisation wherever it comes from. You help fund the work of finding, sourcing and explaining the charts that deserve a wider audience. And you back a publication built on generosity, transparency and the belief that better understanding makes a better world.CHART 1 • Global grid investment is being driven by power and data
Global investment in electricity grids is accelerating sharply, and this chart shows where the money is coming from and why.
The US and China alone account for nearly half of total global grid investment. That concentration reflects two forces acting at once. The first is electrification, as transport, heating and industry shift away from fossil fuels. The second is data centre demand, driven by cloud computing and AI.
What is striking is the cumulative growth. Investment is expected to reach nearly $500 billion annually by the middle of the decade, with some regions more than doubling spending levels compared to 2020.
Grids were once treated as background infrastructure. They are now a binding constraint. Without expansion and modernisation, energy transition targets and digital growth plans collide with physical limits.
This is not a green story alone. It is a capacity story. Power availability is becoming a competitive advantage.
Source: Visual Capitalist
We talk about exponential growth in compute and clean energy as if infrastructure will simply adjust. But grids, mines and fuel systems move at a very different pace. When everything tightens at once, small disruptions carry outsized effects.
These charts are not warnings of collapse. They are reminders that progress is bounded by physics, capital and politics. Ignoring those limits does not remove them. It just shifts where pressure builds.
I have four more charts that extend this story and look at where the next constraints are likely to surface. They are for paid subscribers. Consider joining if you want the full edition and a clearer view of how power, energy and materials are reshaping the global economy.
