'Our GPUs Are Melting,' OpenAI's Altman Warns — Could US Natural Gas Power AI Revolution?

The artificial intelligence boom is now colliding with America's aging energy infrastructure, but natural gas may be the unexpected wildcard that keeps the AI revolution from overheating—literally.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a blunt warning Thursday on social media X: "Our GPUs are melting." The comment came as OpenAI imposed temporary usage limits amid surging demand for image generation in ChatGPT.

As tools like ChatGPT become integral to business operations, the data centers powering them are drawing electricity at unprecedented rates. Now, the race is on to secure reliable electricity supplies.

it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.but our GPUs are melting.we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025

AI Sends US Electricity Demand Soaring: Could Natural Gas Step In To Fill The Gap?

Surging AI adoption is poised to add unprecedented pressure to the U.S. power grid, with data centers emerging as the primary energy guzzlers, according to a report released this week by Natural Gas Intelligence titled ‘AI Rising: How Will Natural Gas ...