石油與天然氣巨頭正從人工智慧熱潮中獲得巨大商機。Williams 和 Chevron 兩家美國能源公司積極向投資者展示數據中心對天然氣與電力的龐大需求，將其視為重大利多。BloombergNEF 報告指出，受數據中心等因素驅動，到2030年代中期美國天然氣產量需增加36%才能滿足需求。

Williams 正在全美興建六座專供數據中心使用的「表後」（behind-the-meter）天然氣電廠，其中四座服務 Meta 在俄亥俄州的數據中心，總投資超過50億美元。Chevron 則與微軟簽署了長達20年的購電協議，在德州建造一座2.67吉瓦的大型電廠，該公司同時創下六年來最佳季度利潤。這些獨立電廠讓科技公司繞過漫長的電網接入等待期，但也引發嚴重的碳排放疑慮——僅五座電廠每年可能排放高達2,100萬噸溫室氣體，相當於瓜地馬拉全國的年排放量。

環保團體對此深感憂慮。地球之友副主任指出，科技與石油產業的結盟等於為本應逐步淘汰的化石燃料產業提供了生命線。這些長期天然氣基礎設施投資可能延緩再生能源轉型，即使未來政策風向改變也難以逆轉。此外，這些電廠是否最終會接入公共電網、對電價產生何種影響，仍是懸而未決的關鍵問題。

Major oil and gas companies are capitalizing on the AI boom by supplying power infrastructure to data centers. Williams and Chevron have presented this surging demand to investors as a significant growth opportunity. A BloombergNEF report projects that US natural gas production would need to increase by 36 percent by the mid-2030s, driven in part by data center energy needs.

Williams is constructing six behind-the-meter gas plants for data centers nationwide, including four serving Meta facilities in Ohio, backed by over $5 billion in investments. Chevron has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft to build a massive 2.67-gigawatt plant in Texas—the largest such project with a long-term contract. However, just five of these gas-fired plants could emit up to 21 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, roughly equivalent to Guatemala's total yearly emissions.

Environmental advocates warn that this alliance between Big Tech and Big Oil provides a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry at a time when it should be phased out. These long-term infrastructure investments risk locking in fossil fuel dependence and delaying the renewable energy transition for decades. Whether these islanded power plants will eventually connect to the public grid—and how that might affect electricity prices—remains a critical unanswered question for the country's energy future.