Oil-field service companies are pivoting toward a new kind of customer: artificial intelligence data centers hungry for power, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Firms like Solaris, Liberty Energy, Atlas Energy Solutions, ProPetro and ProFrac are adapting their expertise in mobile gas-fueled generation—traditionally used for fracking—to provide modular, off-grid electricity for tech giants racing to expand AI capacity.
Solaris, for example, is partnering with Elon Musk’s xAI to co-own and operate 900 megawatts of gas turbines for its Memphis, Tennessee-based Colossus 2 supercomputer. Compared with sluggish utility-scale projects that face yearslong waits, these smaller units can be operational in 12 to 30 months.
The appeal for data centers is speed, reliability and backup power—critical as Microsoft alone plans to spend $80 billion on AI data centers this year. Risks remain, from long-term fuel costs to potential shifts toward cleaner power, but investors see the sector as a cheap entry point into AI-driven energy demand.
