Who benefits from the AI power bottleneck?
Shanu Mathew, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Lazard, analyzes the conflicting incentives of various actors in the AI energy supply chain regarding the 'power bottleneck' narrative. He explains how hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon, equipment makers like Quanta and Vertiv, and land developers benefit from amplifying scarcity to drive demand or secure competitive advantages. Conversely, he identifies independent power producers (IPPs) like Constellation Energy and LNG providers as having incentives to downplay constraints to maintain high commodity prices or favorable arbitrage margins.