AI Data Centres Turn to Converted Jet Engines as Grid Waits Stretch for Years

TechCrunch, which followed up the Times report, said the trend shows how far power supply has fallen behind AI construction. No one treats converted aircraft engines as permanent power plants. Their appeal is that they can be installed quickly. "It's all about getting power as fast as possible," Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen told the Times. He said that with jet-powered units developers "can have a data center running in 24 months."

Who Is Using Them

Elon Musk's xAI has installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi to help power its Colossus 2 data centre in Memphis, according to the Times, which cited state permits and satellite imagery. ProEnergy supplies the units. It rebuilds a GE engine commonly found on Boeing aircraft.

OpenAI also turned to gas turbines in 2025 at its first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. Crusoe, the Denver-based start-up building that campus, ordered 13 of ProEnergy's converted units in April, TechCrunch reported.

Crusoe has also changed course on suppliers. In September it walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic. Boom is developing a supersonic passenger jet and has started selling a version of that jet's engine as a power plant for data centres. A Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch at the time that the company still planned to use turbines.

Why The Grid Is The Bottleneck

Connecting 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia takes about seven years, according to the International Energy Agency. Last week an executive at Mitsubishi Power, one of the largest makers of power generation equipment, told Bloomberg that most new power capacity is expected to come on by 2031.

The delays are already costing some operators business. Last month Microsoft pulled out as anchor customer for Nscale's data centre in Loughton, England, after the local utility said it could not deliver enough power until the early-to-mid 2030s. In the United States, the Trump administration is adding to the pressure by encouraging data centres to generate their own electricity, TechCrunch reported.

The Trade-Offs

The engines have drawbacks. According to the Times, converted jet engines are less efficient and pollute more than turbines designed for conventional gas plants, and it takes more of them to produce the same amount of power. Some experts said efficiency and environmental concerns could become more important within a year or two. That would make the engines a short-term fix rather than a lasting source of supply.

For executives and investors planning AI capacity, the reports show that the timetable for new data centres increasingly depends on securing power, not just chips and buildings. Temporary on-site generation can close the gap, but it brings higher running costs and more scrutiny of emissions.