一些AI数据中心用改装的喷气发动机制造自己的电力
这些引擎从退役的飞机上拔出，也表明电力供应已落后于人工智能。
对于被困在这些线路中的公司来说，改装的喷气发动机的主要图画是发动机能够多快地起动和运行。 Rystad能源分析师Audun Martinsen告诉泰晤士报，使用喷气动力装置，“它们可以在24个月内运行一个数据中心，”
相比之下，根据国际能源机构的数据，将100兆瓦与北弗吉尼亚州的电网连接大约需要7年。 大部分发电能力预计将在2031年实现，三菱电力公司的一位执行官
在某些情况下，这些延误已经使一些数据中心运营商的业务成本下降。 上个月，Microsoft作为英国Loughton的Nscale数据中心的主机客户退出，在本地公用事业称之后，直到20世纪30年代早期至中期，它无法提供足够电力。
Elon Musk的xAI是已经使用发动机的公司之一，《泰晤士报》以州许可证和卫星图像为由，在密西西比州安装了八台改装过的喷气发动机涡轮机，以帮助为孟菲斯的Colossus 2数据中心提供动力。 这些单位来自ProEnergy，它重建了波音喷气机上常见的GE引擎。
2025年，OpenAI在位于德克萨斯州阿比勒内的第一个星门遗址上，跟随穆斯克以燃气涡轮机领先。 Crusoe是建有AI数据中心的丹佛创业者
9月，克鲁索退出了12.5亿美元的交易，从Boo Supersonic公司购买了29台天然气涡轮机，该公司是开发一台超音速客机的起步企业，该机引擎也开始作为数据中心的发电厂出售。 一架克鲁索发言人在当时告诉TechCrunch公司仍然计划使用涡轮机。
目前特朗普政府正通过鼓励数据中心自行发电来增加压力。
转换的喷气发动机有权衡，但：他们比为传统燃气厂设计的涡轮机效率低，这可能最终使改装的喷气发动机成为短期游戏，一些专家说，效率和环境问题在一两年内可能越来越重要。
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Stuck in years-long lines for grid connections and new turbines, some AI data centers are making their own electricity with converted jet engines, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The engines, pulled from retired aircraft and rebuilt to burn natural gas, aren’t anyone’s idea of a permanent power plant. But they’re another sign of how far power supply has fallen behind the AI buildout.
For companies stuck in those lines, the main draw of converted jet engines is how quickly the engines can be up and running. “It’s all about getting power as fast as possible,” Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen told the Times. With jet-powered units, “they can have a data center running in 24 months,” he said.
Hooking up 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia, by comparison, takes about seven years, according to the International Energy Agency. Most power capacity is expected to come on by 2031, an executive at Mitsubishi Power, one of the world’s top makers of power generation equipment told Bloomberg last week.
In some cases, these delays are already costing some data center operators business. Last month, Microsoft pulled out as the anchor customer for Nscale’s data center in Loughton, England, after the local utility said it couldn’t deliver enough power until the early-to-mid 2030s.
Elon Musk’s xAI is among the companies already using the engines, having installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi to help power its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, the Times reported, citing state permits and satellite imagery. The units come from ProEnergy, which rebuilds a GE engine commonly found on Boeing jets.
In 2025, OpenAI followed Musk’s lead with gas turbines at its first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. Crusoe, a Denver-based startup that builds AI data centers, is constructing that Abilene campus and ordered 13 of ProEnergy’s converted units in April.
In September, Crusoe walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic, a startup developing a supersonic passenger jet that has also begun selling a version of that jet’s engine as a power plant for data centers. A Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch at the time that the company still plans to use turbines.
Currently the Trump administration is adding to the pressure by encouraging data centers to generate their own electricity.
Converted jet engines come with trade-offs, though: They’re less efficient and pollute more than turbines designed for conventional gas plants and it takes more of them to make the same amount of power, according to the Times. That may ultimately make converted jet engines a short-term play with some experts saying that efficiency and environmental concerns may grow in importance in a year or two.
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