Surging US data center demand is inevitably driving a power shift toward gas-powered generation investment.

It’s a timely topic, amid the AI-enabled infrastructure boom and the country’s desire to compete with China’s clean energy market. The amount of gas-fired power in development for data centers in the US has nearly doubled in less than a year, according to research by Global Energy Monitor, from a pipeline of 97GW at the end of 2025 to 189GW in mid-2026. It speaks to how much technology companies are seeking on-site power solutions to fuel the continued AI boom.

For Richard Reisig, managing director of investments and asset management at Siemens Energy, there are plenty of underlying factors that are driving market growth.

“It’s a confluence of events – underinvested grid assets, industrialization, and reshoring, in addition to the emerging use of power in various markets around the world,” he explains.

Tracking demand

Reisig has spent 25 years working in energy business development and government affairs in the US, before taking on his current role at Siemens Energy’s equity and asset management business. He sees the shift toward gas power as a result of the desire for speed-to-power.

“That’s the currency we see now, and estimates put US data center demand at around 70-80GW,” he says. “Data centers could account for about 12 percent of US power demand, something we’ve never seen before in history, and it’s the biggest part of the growth.”

In addition to China, the Middle East and Europe are also undergoing significant expansion, leading to unprecedented global growth. One solution that the US has turned to in particular is gas turbines – a solution that has been much contested by public opponents of data centers, but is an abundant power source for the country.

“Gas turbines can be deployed quickly and produce power in a number of different scenarios,” Reisig says. “They give developers flexibility to deploy other technologies alongside them – they’re flexible, fast, predictable, and financeable.”

To support US energy growth, Siemens Energy announced a $1 billion investment with a goal to increase market capacity. It plans to scale up US production for grid and gas turbine equipment, which is expected to create more than 1,500 highly skilled jobs and target site expansions to meet market demands.

“The investment brings us closer to our customers and helps us optimize supply chains,” Reisig adds. “It also gives us real-time feedback on our technology development. The closer we work with our customers, the better the outcome we’re looking for.”

Siemens Energy has invested so much because it expects demand trends to continue. One of the largest parts of its commitment is to increase its gas manufacturing capacity, with plans to add another fifth of the investment to its gas turbine generation portfolio as a whole. In addition, it’s building a transformer facility in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“We see high demand for related assets, including substations and high-power and high-voltage transformers,” Reisig says. “We haven’t produced that in the US before and, going forward, this will be one of our key manufacturing facilities.”

Anticipating the next phase of growth

As hyperscalers and developers build infrastructure for the next phase of growth, supply chains are desperately trying to catch up with demand. Siemens Energy hopes to be a strong part of this transition, from the supply base through to final manufacturing.

“It remains to be seen when supply will actually catch up,” Reisig notes. “The question is whether timelines will get even longer as demand stretches further.”

As the US capacity market booms alongside the rest of the world, countries will inevitably compete for supply chain resources. This makes improvements to speed-to-power, data center reliability, and flexibility paramount to optimize outcomes for facilities and residential electricity customers.

“The earlier we know about a project and can work with our partners, the better the outcome,” Reisig adds. “The need will drive everyone to invest in the future, and I think we’ll ultimately arrive at a better scenario than the one we see today.”

Watch the full DCD>Talks episode with Richard Reisig here.