Williams, Chevron Build Gas Plants for AI Data Centers
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- Williams is building six behind-the-meter gas power plants for data centers, including four for Meta in Ohio, and announced more than $5 billion in investments in mid-July alongside private equity firm KKR
- Chevron signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft for a 2.67-gigawatt gas plant in Texas — described by Chevron as the only multi-gigawatt project with such a long-term contract in place — while reporting its best quarterly profits in six years
- The seven data-center-connected gas plants highlighted in the two companies' Q2 results could emit up to 21 million tons of greenhouse gases per year based on permit applications, an amount roughly on par with Guatemala's annual emissions
- Chevron's Microsoft plant could produce more than 11.5 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year, while Williams' four permit-filed plants could emit up to 9.6 million tons annually — equivalent to more than 22 average natural gas plants
- BloombergNEF found US natural gas production must increase by 36 percent by the mid-2030s to meet demand driven partly by data centers
- The Trump administration is actively encouraging tech companies to bring their own power rather than connect to the grid, as utility bills rise and fuel a national backlash against data centers
- Williams president Chad Zamarin said the company "overbuilt the capacity" of a pipeline serving one of its Meta-affiliated Ohio power plants to serve as "an energy artery along which other projects could be developed"
Why it matters: Williams and Chevron have locked Meta and Microsoft into 10- to 20-year fossil fuel commitments as AI demand drives a need for 36% growth in US gas production by mid-2030s. These long-lived plants could anchor the country in fossil dependence for decades, while a school district quietly granted Chevron's Texas plant a tax break worth millions.
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