Bloomberg Surveillance · Sep 24, 2026
With Jonathan Maxwell, Founder and CEO of Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL), and author of The Edge
In America, 65% of the energy sent to a data center is wasted on the way, Jonathan Maxwell said. In the UK the figure is 53%.
Data centers have become the political target for rising energy bills, and Maxwell said the polling on them is 80% negative. The price rises people actually feel, he said, are at the gasoline pump, in liquid fuels that data centers do not use.
"You don't run data centers on liquid fuels. You run them on electricity."
Jonathan Maxwell, founder and chief executive of Sustainable Development Capital, on Bloomberg Surveillance, in New York for Climate Week. His firm invests in energy efficiency, and his book The Edge makes the case for a step change in how efficiently the world uses resources. Tom Keene called it "a blistering essay on our naivete about infrastructure."
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 numbers that matter.
Key Takeaways
Gasoline is up 27% and liquid fuels about 50%, and he said technology is being wrongly blamed for it
Data centers poll 80% negative, yet he sees them as one of the biggest efficiency opportunities ever
A new US grid connection takes 5.2 years on average, and about five years in Europe
Most energy is lost as heat, and building power at the data center doubles efficiency
China is roughly 50-60% coal but is electrifying transport and has passed peak oil, in his view
1. Blame the Pump, Not AI
Keene opened by asking what Americans are most naive about when people like Maxwell talk about infrastructure.
Fuel prices are what people feel
"Well, the number one thing that's hitting people on energy infrastructure at the moment is at the pump." — Jonathan Maxwell
He said gasoline is up 27% and liquid fuels, including diesel, about 50%. Much of that comes from geopolitical problems, which he wrote about in The Edge.
Technology is taking the blame for costs it did not cause
Maxwell said the two are being conflated. Technology is what is driving American and UK growth right now, he said, and it is being blamed for cost increases that come from liquid fuels.
"You don't run data centers on liquid fuels. You run them on electricity." — Jonathan Maxwell
