Tech companies champing at the bit to create the latest, greatest generative AI models face an uncomfortable dilemma. Data-hungry models like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini rely on troves of digital material in data centers that require massive amounts of energy for processing and constant cooling. Some estimates suggest this swelling energy demand could account for nine percent of all US electricity by the end of the decade. That's up from around four percent today, a steep increase experts attribute in part to Big Tech's brewing generative AI arms race. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar aren't ready to meet demand alone. Instead, much of the new energy could come from fossil fuel sources which could undermine many of these companies' ambitious "net zero" and carbon neutral pledges. 

Tech companies are scrambling in an effort to find more renewable energy to keep those climate goals within striking distance. Some are even looking to a new, more advanced form of geothermal power as a potential partial saving grace. Last week, Facebook-owner Meta announced a new deal with the Texas-based geothermal energy startup Sage Geosystems to develop new power plants potentially capable of delivering 150 megawatts of carbon-free baseload power, reportedly enough to power 70,000 homes, to Meta by the end of the decade. If successful, the ambitious effort could offer tech companies a much needed clean energy boost to help meet their staggering energy demands. It would also mark a critical inflection point for modern geothermal, which is coming of age on the backs of techniques and expertise gleaned, maybe ironically, from the oil and gas industry.  

"I think that the world is not prepared for what is about to happen in terms of AI demand," Jamie Beard, executive director of Project InnerSpace, a nonprofit focused on promoting geothermal power, told Popular Science. 

Beard said the tech industry and geothermal startups are at a "convergence." After years of development and tests modern geothermal is ready to start serving larger businesses. Tech, in desperate need of new cleaner energy sources, is ready to invest. Beard and others in the geothermal space are optimistic new startups like Sage are ready to help meet new energy demands, though experts say it's still unclear whether or not this still developing industry can scale operations and reduce prices fast enough to be viable in a rapid-fire AI environment.