Energy investment in the United States reflects its prioritisation of energy security, with a subsequent strategic push to establish a presence in emerging value chains and to supply international markets. Since becoming a net energy exporter in 2019, a remarkable turnaround from its high previous reliance on imports, the country has continued to expand its global energy role. In 2024 it was the world’s largest producer of oil and gas (20% of global output), as well as a major investor (25% of total investment). This growth has been buoyed by rising investment in LNG export projects, mainly targeting Asian and European buyers.

Between 2015 and 2024 the share of annual energy investment going to fossil fuel supply and fossil fuel-based electricity generation declined from 60% to just under 40%. Meanwhile, investment in clean energy has grown rapidly supported by policy and more competitive prices. These factors have spurred new manufacturing investments reaching USD 60 billion in 2024 and were further bolstered by initiatives that aimed to enhance domestic competitiveness and attract foreign direct investment. The United States is now home to 8% of global lithium-ion battery production and in 2024 solar PV module manufacturing capacity nearly tripled to 42 GW.

With a boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and subsequent investment in data centres (DC), companies are racing to secure sources of clean electricity. This has led to a surge in the US corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) market wherein technology and DC companies have been responsible for procuring 86 GW of renewable capacity since 2015. This has also created demand for next-generation energy technologies such as small modular reactors (SMR) and advanced geothermal plants, reaching agreements respectively for 26 GW (mostly SMR) and 265 MW as of Q4 2024. This has been enabled by deep financial markets and a domestic venture capital ecosystem, which have helped drive early-stage growth of new technology developers. Given its long history with nuclear power, as well as technology and workforce spillovers from its oil and gas sector, the US could emerge as a leader for these technologies with DCs creating a domestic market for innovation and commercialisation.

Surging DC investment, however, has the potential to exacerbate existing challenges relating to grids, which are already experiencing bottlenecks with the electrification of transport, industry and buildings. More than 90% of DC operators cite power availability as their top concern and nearly half place upgrading grid infrastructure as the most important mitigator. New grid infrastructure often takes between five and 15 years from planning to completion compared with three to six years for a DC. In 2024 the wait time for grid connection was one to three years (up to seven years in DC hotspots) with 205 GW of advanced-stage solar and wind waiting. Further complicating the issue, DC operators have also become major procurers of the same electrical equipment needed for grids, transformers in particular. Suppliers have been unable to keep up with new demand, leading to wait times as long as six years for utility-scale transformers, and prices subsequently increased by 26% in 2024. Hence, the success of recent grid reforms may prove critical to enable the growth of this strategically important industry and provide an additional imperative for change.