Energy
More dependable, accessible energy could support useful production. Costs, infrastructure and demand determine what gets built and who benefits.
Explore the energy system →FUTURE SOCIETY & ECONOMY / PRODUCTIVITY & POSSIBILITIES
More from
every unit.
What does energy enable? Follow economic output, the resources behind it and the assumptions shaping possible futures.
Measured inputs and derived economic ratios through 2025. Exploratory AI scenarios are labelled separately. No composite prosperity score or AI-versus-human ranking.
01 / OUTPUT AND ENERGY
What does a unit of energy enable?
World GDP divided by total energy supply. An EBIGRAPH calculation from World Bank economic data and the same energy series used in Energy Progress.
Checking retained inputs…
Selected annual landmarks; straight segments are visual guides between those points. GDP & energy growth uses 2000 = 100 for both series. Full-year 2026 inputs are not available in this edition.
Inspect values, units and calculation
GDP is in constant 2021 international dollars, adjusted for purchasing power. Energy is total energy supply under the physical energy content method, expressed in TWh. Divide GDP by TWh × 1 billion to obtain GDP per kWh-equivalent. This is not retail electricity, human metabolic energy or nominal dollar revenue.
GDP is a gap-filled World total and remains subject to revisions. Energy accounting, the industrial/services mix, climate and trade can affect the ratio. A rise does not establish how much AI contributed, technical efficiency alone or benefits shared by every person.
World Bank GDP definition ↗ · Energy accounting method ↗ · Retained inputs & calculation →
World Bank WDI: CC BY 4.0. Energy: Energy Institute 2026 and other sources, processed by Our World in Data; limited attributed World excerpt, original provider terms apply. Calculations and charts by EBIGRAPH; no source endorsement.
02 / AN EXPLORATORY SCENARIO
A provocative comparison.
Test its assumptions.
The Moonshots discussion compares claimed economic output per kWh for Anthropic and New York City. The figures below reproduce the supplied scenario, not validated productivity measurements or an Anthropic-approved forecast.
Different accounting boundaries
Company revenue, customer value and city GDP are different numerators. Electricity, total energy and the energy embodied in food, infrastructure and education are different denominators. These claims cannot be compared with the measured-input chart above.
50%–200% · illustrative assumptions, not probabilities
Circles: $4.39 current estimate (2026), $6.20 projection (2027), and an implied 2030 value. No interpolated AI curve or crossing year is fitted. The flat NYC line is an assumption.
What would make this comparison credible?
We need the original calculation, dated output and energy inputs, utilization, cooling and training allocation, consistent monetary units, and an explicit boundary for human infrastructure and life-cycle energy. The quoted “5% training share” is not substantiated here and is excluded from the calculation.
Third-party Moonshots transcript ↗ · Episode reference ↗
Provenance: user-supplied summary matching a third-party transcript. Original calculation not verified; original video retrieval was throttled. Changing assumptions does not validate the starting figures.
03 / THE ECONOMIC CONNECTION
From technological progress
to people’s lives.
AI & computing
Capabilities could raise productivity when they translate into successful work. Measure outcomes, quality, energy and human supervision together.
Explore AI capability evidence →Robotics
Useful physical work could relieve bottlenecks and difficult tasks. Operating reliability, safety and system costs must support the benefit.
Explore deployment evidence →These are conditional editorial mechanisms, not measured causal effects. Higher GDP per energy unit is not a welfare, equality or environmental-impact score.