Data Center Energy Trends Force a Rethink of Chip Power Delivery

What happened

Intel Foundry published a two-article series on chip power delivery. The first article cites Gartner forecasts that worldwide data center power demand will rise from 104 gigawatts in 2025 to 132 gigawatts in 2026 and reach 290 gigawatts by 2030; these figures are forecasts. It also states that AI-optimized servers are expected to account for 31% of consumption in 2026 and surpass conventional servers by 2027. The article explains that conventional frontside power delivery routes electricity and signals through shared metal layers, creating resistance and inductance issues as designs grow more complex; Intel says its RibbonFET Gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architecture with Intel 18A separates these functions by moving power routing to the chip's backside, reducing resistance, inductance, and IR drop. The article also describes local energy storage options such as Omni MIM on-die capacitors, substrate-embedded capacitors, and embedded deep trench capacitors, as well as implementations including fully integrated voltage regulators with CoaxMIL magnetic inductors, C2VR capacitive voltage regulators, and dedicated regulator chiplets. The second article extends the problem to chiplets and stacked dies, noting that advanced packaging can create electrical bottlenecks, and advocates moving voltage conversion closer to the load.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: SemiWiki · 10/8/2026 · View original source