Your company needs an energy strategy for AI’s next phase

Journal article

As AI adoption accelerates, the key competitive bottleneck is shifting from models and GPUs to electricity itself. AI’s economics are becoming increasingly industrial: Competitive advantage now depends not just on access to intelligence but on access to the physical infrastructure required to produce it, including power, cooling, land, and grid connections. This shift can be understood through a broader historical pattern called the “Great Value Loop,” which shows how value repeatedly migrates downward in technology stacks toward whichever layer is hardest to scale. Today, that layer is energy. For incumbents, the implication is clear: AI strategy can no longer be separated from energy strategy. Companies must begin managing “intelligence per watt” through more efficient workloads, flexible procurement, strategic compute placement, and long-term energy optionality.

Authors: Tang, Y; Zhao, EY

• Alternative title: Energy access is the new source of AI advantage
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing
• Journal: Harvard Business Review
• Publication date: 2026-06-04
• Acceptance date: 2026-06-04
• EISSN: 0017-8012
• Language: English