Prolonged waits for grid connections and new turbines have prompted some AI data centers to generate their own power using repurposed jet engines. These engines, salvaged from decommissioned aircraft and modified to run on natural gas, are not intended as long-term power solutions. Still, they underscore how severely electricity supply has lagged behind the demands of AI infrastructure expansion.

For companies facing those lengthy queues, the primary appeal of converted jet engines lies in how rapidly they can be deployed. "It's all about getting power as fast as possible," Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen said. With jet-powered units, "they can have a data center running in 24 months," he noted. By contrast, connecting 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia takes roughly seven years, according to the International Energy Agency. Most power capacity is not expected to come online until 2031, an executive at Mitsubishi Power, one of the world's leading manufacturers of power generation equipment, told Bloomberg last week.

In some instances, these delays have already cost data center operators business. Last month, Microsoft withdrew as the anchor customer for Nscale's data center in Loughton, England, after the local utility indicated it could not supply sufficient power until the early-to-mid 2030s. Elon Musk's xAI is among the companies already employing these engines, having installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi to help power its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, according to state permits and satellite imagery. The units come from ProEnergy, which rebuilds a GE engine commonly found on Boeing jets. In 2025, OpenAI followed Musk's lead with gas turbines at its first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. Crusoe, a Denver-based startup that builds AI data centers, is constructing that Abilene campus and ordered 13 of ProEnergy's converted units in April. In September, Crusoe walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic, a startup developing a supersonic passenger jet that has also begun selling a version of that jet's engine as a power plant for data centers.

Currently the Trump administration is adding to the pressure by encouraging data centers to generate their own electricity. Converted jet engines come with trade-offs, though: They 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. That may ultimately make converted jet engines a short-term play, with some experts saying that efficiency and environmental concerns may grow in importance in a year or two.