US Needs Up to 100 Gigawatts of New Power Soon, EQT CEO Says

Toby Rice, chief executive of EQT Corporation, warned that surging demand from artificial intelligence and large-scale data centers could push the United States to require up to 100 gigawatts of additional electricity generation capacity in the near to medium term. Rice said natural gas will likely shoulder the majority of that new baseload demand.

Those remarks align with EQT’s own investor materials and sector studies: the company’s Q1 presentation notes roughly 55 GW of data-center capacity under development near EQT’s core operating area and about 200 GW in various stages across the U.S. EQT projects that data-center buildout and coal-to-gas switching could drive approximately 10–18 Bcf/d of incremental natural gas demand by 2030 under more aggressive scenarios. The company positions its integrated “well-to-watt” model as a way to serve large, firm customers.

Market implications are immediate: a sizeable uplift in baseload demand can tighten natural gas markets and put pressure on regional transmission and generation interconnection processes. Developers have responded by seeking long-term gas supply deals and by building dedicated generation for hyperscalers, amplifying the need for faster permitting and transmission upgrades. EQT argues that gas offers reliable, dispatchable power while renewables and storage scale up.

In a broader policy context, the debate highlights a trade-off between speed of build-out and decarbonization goals. Policymakers and industry executives have stressed the need to accelerate infrastructure approvals if the U.S. is to avoid capacity shortfalls as AI-related loads expand. The tension between rapid demand growth and lengthy regulatory timelines is likely to shape both energy policy and corporate strategy in the coming years.

Analysts say the dominant risk/reward factors will be permitting timelines, transmission upgrades and the pace at which renewable-plus-storage alternatives can be brought online at scale. For investors and utilities, key indicators to watch are long-term gas supply contracts, regional capacity auctions and interconnection queue progress; for EQT and peers, securing offtake agreements with hyperscalers and utilities will determine how much of the projected demand translates into lasting revenue growth.