The UK’s energy regulator is using a variety of tricks to keep speculative data center projects from plugging into the power grid. The country’s AI ambitions hang in the balance.

More than 15 politicians from across the country have signed on to the AI Pact, vowing to regulate data centers and AI. “We’ve got to get this right,” says Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn.

There’s no clearer sign of the data center boom than rampant gas projects that have been proposed or that are already under construction.

Cheap energy, abundant land, and proximity to Beijing have turned a city in Inner Mongolia into a crucial hub for data centers.