The Other Side of the AI Compute Arms Race: Energy Anxiety Behind a 300% Gas Turbine Price Hike

Lately, I've been grinding LeetCode to prepare for AI algorithm interviews when I came across a news item that surprised me: gas turbine prices have risen by about 300% over three years. My first reaction was, what do gas turbines have to do with me? Thinking it through, I realized this reflects the surging energy demand from AI data centers. As an aspiring algorithm newcomer who hasn't entered the industry yet, I suddenly realized that I'd previously focused solely on model parameter counts and GPU compute power, ignoring the physical infrastructure behind all that computing—electricity.