The tech industry needs massive amounts of electricity. The most overlooked power plant in the United States isn’t a gas turbine or a solar farm: It’s your house.

Tech companies are locked into a race to build artificial intelligence that comes down to speed and scale. AI infrastructure such as data centers, some argue, plays the role that railroads and canals did in the 19th century: The first firms to dominate will control the era’s most transformative technology. Tech giants are expected to pour about $2.7 trillion into data centers and AI infrastructure in the United States by 2030, McKinsey estimates, more than one Manhattan Project every month, in inflation‑adjusted terms.