The key facts

  • Converted aircraft engines allow a data center to launch in roughly 24 months, versus a seven-year wait for a 100 MW connection in Northern Virginia according to the IEA
  • xAI installed eight such ProEnergy turbines for Colossus 2 in Memphis, while OpenAI and Crusoe use gas turbines in Abilene, Texas
  • Microsoft pulled out of a deal with Nscale in England because power there was promised only by the early-to-mid 2030s

Aircraft engines as a stopgap for the power shortage

Some AI data centers have begun generating their own electricity using converted aircraft engines taken from retired planes and retooled to burn natural gas. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported, recounting a story cited by TechCrunch. The reason is years-long queues for grid connections and for purchasing new turbines: according to the International Energy Agency, connecting 100 MW in Northern Virginia takes about seven years, and a Mitsubishi Power representative told Bloomberg that most new capacity will only appear by 2031.

Who is already installing turbines and who is losing sites

The main advantage of such units is speed: Rystad Energy analyst Odun Martinsen told the Times that with them a data center can be launched within 24 months. Elon Musk's xAI has already installed eight converted turbines in Mississippi to power the Colossus 2 data center in Memphis — this follows from state permits and satellite images cited by the Times. The supplier is ProEnergy, which converts a GE engine widely used on Boeing aircraft. In 2025, OpenAI followed Musk's example with gas turbines at the first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas; the campus is being built by the startup Crusoe, which ordered 13 ProEnergy units in April. In September, however, Crusoe walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 gas turbines from Boom Supersonic, although its representative said at the time that the company still planned to use turbines.

The cost of the power shortage and the limits of the solution

Electricity delays are already affecting business: last month Microsoft withdrew as the anchor tenant of Nscale's data center in Loughton, England, after the local utility said it could not provide sufficient capacity until the early-to-mid 2030s. The Trump administration is adding to the pressure, encouraging data centers to generate their own electricity, MarketWatch notes. Converted aircraft engines have drawbacks: according to the Times, they are less efficient and pollute the environment more than turbines at conventional gas power plants, and more of them are needed for the same capacity. Some experts believe that in a year or two, efficiency and environmental concerns may become more important, turning such engines into a short-term solution.