OpenAI's 2030 datacenter roadmap targets 30 GW of power capacity. To put that in perspective: 1 GW roughly equals the entire power consumption of Denver, Colorado.

So they're essentially planning to spin up the electrical equivalent of 30 major US cities worth of compute infrastructure in just 5 years.

For context, current hyperscale datacenters typically run 50-150 MW each. A 30 GW target means OpenAI needs 200-600 massive facilities, or a smaller number of truly unprecedented mega-sites.

The grid impact is wild. Most regional power grids supply 5-15 GW total. OpenAI alone would consume more electricity than entire countries like Portugal or Greece.

This isn't just about chips anymore—it's about whether the energy infrastructure can physically scale fast enough to match AI compute ambitions. Nuclear SMRs, dedicated renewable farms, and direct utility partnerships are becoming non-negotiable at this scale.