AI companies are building huge natural gas plants to power data centers. What could go wrong? | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. Who doesn’t love a good round of FOMO? From dot-com to Web 2.0, virtual reality to blockchain, the tech industry has had its share of being too afraid to miss out on a trend. The AI bubble is the big daddy of them all. Its first offspring — the rush to lock down power for data centers — is now begetting a mad dash to secure natural gas supplies and equipment. If FOMOs could have babies, then the AI bubble is already having grandkids. Microsoft said on Tuesday that it’s working with Chevron and Engine No. 1 to build a natural gas power plant in West Texas that could grow to produce 5 gigawatts of electricity. This week Google confirmed that it’s working with Crusoe to build a 933 MW natural gas power plant in North Texas. And last week, Meta announced that it was adding another seven natural gas power plants to its Hyperion data center in Louisiana, bringing the site to 7.46 GW of capacity — enough to power the entire state of South Dakota. The recent investments are concentrated i