AI Data Centres Hungry for Power as Indonesia Faces Energy Shortfall

The rapidly evolving AI technology requires immense amounts of energy. Former Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan explained that a requirement of 10,000 kWh per capita is necessary to support such advancements.

Only a few countries are currently able to meet this demand, namely the United States, China, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam. Meanwhile, Indonesia only provides 1,300 kWh per capita.

“I believe that for a country to be able to utilise AI, that country requires electricity with a capacity of 10,000 kWh per capita,” said Gita at the XLSMART Bravo 500 Summit in Jakarta on Thursday (11/06/2026).

Gita explained that energy is critically needed because AI models require 10 to 15 times more energy than standard search engine usage.

“Because when you use Gemini, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, or anything similar, it uses 10-15 times more energy than a Google search,” he clarified.

On the same occasion, former Minister of Communication and Informatics, Rudiantara, expressed similar sentiments. He cited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s remarks regarding the five layers of AI, one of which concerns energy.

Rudiantara noted that the electricity capacity in the city of Beijing is much larger than that of the entire Indonesian nation. The current capacity available in Indonesia is only sufficient for small-scale data centres.

“Currently, we have capacity, but it is only for small-scale data centres,” he explained.

Rudiantara also touched upon the challenges of building data centres amidst a situation where chip demand exceeds supply. TSMC is known to hold the majority of the supply, reaching 90%, and he suggested the importance of securing access to such resources.

“My advice, if we want to build data centres with GPUs, is that we must have access to Taiwan, whether directly or indirectly,” said Rudiantara.