Some AI data centers are generating their own electricity with converted jet engines while they wait in years-long lines for grid connections and new turbines, according to TechCrunch, which on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 summarized reporting by The New York Times. The engines were retired from aircraft and rebuilt to burn natural gas, and TechCrunch says they are not seen as permanent power plants.

Why operators are using them

  • Rystad Energy analyst Audun Martinsen said, “It’s all about getting power as fast as possible,” and that with jet-powered units “they can have a data center running in 24 months,” per TechCrunch.
  • The International Energy Agency says connecting 100 megawatts to the grid in Northern Virginia takes about seven years, according to the report.
  • A Mitsubishi Power executive told Bloomberg that most power capacity is expected to come online by 2031, per TechCrunch.
  • TechCrunch says Microsoft withdrew last month as anchor customer for Nscale’s data center in Loughton, England, after the local utility said it could not supply enough power until the early-to-mid 2030s.

Companies named

  • xAI: installed eight converted jet-engine turbines in Mississippi to help power its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, according to the Times, which cited state permits and satellite imagery. The units come from ProEnergy, which rebuilds a GE engine commonly found on Boeing jets.
  • OpenAI: followed xAI in 2025 by deploying gas turbines at its first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. TechCrunch does not describe these as converted jet engines.
  • Crusoe: the Denver-based builder of the Abilene campus ordered 13 of ProEnergy’s converted units in April. In September it walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 natural gas turbines from Boom Supersonic. A Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch the company still plans to use turbines.
  • Boom Supersonic: the supersonic-jet startup has begun selling a version of its jet engine as a data-center power plant.

Trade-offs

According to the Times as summarized by TechCrunch, converted jet engines are less efficient and pollute more than turbines built for conventional gas plants, so more of them are needed to produce the same power. TechCrunch says some experts see this as a short-term solution and that efficiency and environmental concerns may grow in importance within a year or two. It also says the Trump administration is encouraging data centers to generate their own electricity.

Sources and notes

This post is based on TechCrunch’s report by Aditya Mehta, published at 2:19 p.m. PST on November 3, 2026, which draws on The New York Times (November 3, 2026), the International Energy Agency, Bloomberg (October 27, 2026), Reuters (October 18, 2026) and other outlets. Lens read only TechCrunch’s account, not the Times article or the other sources. Lens did not contact the companies named.

Image: a General Electric CF6-80C2 turbofan engine on a maintenance stand in a hangar, by Hunini via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped. Illustrative photo of an engine type; it does not show a data-center installation or the events described.