Please welcome Alphabet and Google president and CIO Ruth Porat, and EEI chair and Exelon president and CEO Calvin Butler.
So, let me begin by saying good morning to everyone. We talk a lot in this industry about living through a pivotal moment. But the truth is very few moments have looked quite like this one. Electricity demand is rising at levels that we haven't seen in decades. AI is accelerating innovation at an extraordinary pace. And utilities across the country are working really hard to figure out how we support that growth responsibly in a way that strengthens the grid, protects affordability for customers, and creates long-term economic opportunity.
At Exelon and across many EEI member companies, we're developing new approaches and commercial structures such as transmission security agreements to make sure that large load growth is paired with the right investments. And cost protections are set up for customers while still enabling innovation and economic development. And for the first time in a long time, the utility and technology sectors are having to think together about those kinds of innovative approaches, as well as infrastructure investment, affordability, reliability, workforce readiness, and growth.
So, there probably couldn't be a better person to help us think through this moment rather than Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google. Ruth has a remarkable career spanning finance, technology, and global investment leadership. And she's been at the center of some of the most consequential economic and technology shifts of the last several decades. Thank you for being here. At Google and Alphabet, she's helped shape how one of the world's most influential companies thinks about long-term investment, innovation, and infrastructure. And just last week, I'm going to brag on you, she was listed again as one of Fortune magazine's 100 most powerful women. I'm excited to talk to such an amazing leader. Ruth, thank you again for being here with us today.
Thank you so much and thank you for that kind introduction. It's great to be here with everyone.
So, we're going to start off. When you look at this moment we're in, AI, energy transformation, all of this change happening at once, what mindset do you think leaders need most right now at this time?
Well, I think you've already touched on some of it that's so important. At Google, we agree profoundly that this is one of the most extraordinary times in history and the upside potential with AI is extraordinary. Economic growth, fortifying security, better delivery of critical services like healthcare, education, what government does, advancing science. It's an amazing time. And our view is we need to approach this boldly and responsibly. You hit both of those in your opening comments. And the last thing I would say in terms of mindset, bold, responsible, and inquisitive.
And if I just break those down a bit, the opportunity with AI, what I'm frequently asked is where do I begin and how do I really maximize the upside? We think there are three ways to think about the way to unlock the potential with AI for anyone, public sector, private sector. One is about profound innovation, meaningfully reimagining the art of the possible, taking on new lines of business, new opportunities that you couldn't previously do.
The second is around risk management. It's the proverbial needle in the haystack, so important for this industry because what is that? Cybersecurity, early detection of cyber risk, early detection of fraud, but in particular for critical infrastructure using AI to fortify security defenses. And the third is around operational effectiveness.
I think the challenge for each of us to the first part is it's really easy to default to low-hanging fruit, operational effectiveness, but that's not taking the potential with AI, nor is it inspiring our teams to think about that North Star. How can we really benefit, accelerate growth, and continue to build on what we're doing?
So, bold is one. Responsible, you really hit on it. Our view is that it's critical that we are working with all of our partners to deliver the upside responsibly. And for us at Google, what that means is when we are showing up to build, we are investing to add to energy capacity. We are investing and working with our partners to protect energy affordability. We pay, obviously, for not only the energy that we use, but for all of the infrastructure growth required whether or not we use it, so that we can immunize, basically, consumers and businesses from that growth expense.
We build energy affordability funds and invest in community. And so, being responsible so that our stakeholders, our partners, our communities see that there's upside from them. Investing in jobs and job creation is a very critical element of it. The last one is stay inquisitive. For each one of us, you can't, I think, achieve that first upside opportunity if each of us in the room don't have some familiarity with what is AI. It inspires our teams to actually think about the art of the possible and it says we're on this journey, let's do it in a super high quality way.
I love your answer because I — so, for those of you, we were backstage and I shared with Ruth, I said it's a good interview when you're doing the talking, because to get into how Google does it and what you're thinking about when you guys are going through that process, I think is a best practice and how we partner with you is going to be key.
Let's take a moment to expound on your comment. Why do you think data centers can actually be beneficial to the grid and what we're trying to do, you know, in protecting customers around affordability. Let's dive a little deeper because as you heard, I mean, affordability is the issue right now. We're not getting around it and I know every one of my colleagues in here has put that at the center of what they do and we believe large loads can help with that process, drive costs down for everyone, but it has to be done in a responsible way. I'd love it if you can take a moment to just peel that back a little bit.
Yeah, great question. I'm thinking of some research which hopefully many of you have seen that came out of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs last year that goes very much to your point, which is electricity prices have increased more rapidly in states that do not have data centers than those that do on average, precisely because of the large workloads that enable better amortization of the fixed cost base, and that is before a number of our peers have taken the actions that we've taken.
So, our view is that it is very important in partnership that we're able to say we are adding capacity and we do that in a couple of different ways. We're investing to add to the available sources. In particular, we're excited about the opportunity with advanced energy sources, whether it's nuclear, CCS, batteries, advanced geothermal. And you've seen our announcements across the country. We're also excited about how we're adding to capacity through demand response. Google pioneered demand response. So, in extreme weather events, heat and cold, we can move our workloads out of the way to make room for the community. And announced a couple of weeks ago that we've aggregated a gigawatt of capacity we thereby free up. So those are examples.
On affordability, adding to capacity, basically economic 101 does help with affordability. But to be more specific, I think one of the very important elements is this notion that we're partnering and committing to the upfront infrastructure required for growth. I think we're really excited about many of the things that have flown out of that, but I think of one in particular. I think it was last year when we announced with Georgia Power the work that we were doing, and it enabled them to say, 'As a result of the way we're partnering with Google, we are able to hold firm, hold flat our rates for the next 3 years.' And that then led to the Secretary of Energy saying, 'When done right, which Google has done, it adds to grid resilience as well as energy affordability.' And we're really proud of that done right concept.
It's about capacity and the investments to protect affordability. On top of that, it needs to be local. And I think if anything, what we're seeing is the more we can do in partnership with the local communities, it really makes a difference. So, we have announced as we're opening data centers, energy affordability funds, where we work with local partners to go into homes to help weatherize homes and other things that immediately reduce monthly bills. And then probably one of the most exciting that goes to this element of how excited communities get is the whole job training, electrician training program, which happy to go into as much as you want.
So let's — I love this. So a couple of things. We talk about when done right. And the affordability process of really, it's all stacked when you talk about the Google stack, or I think the AI stack if I got this right. But then talk about the job creation because I think I've heard you say that if you really focus or use the terms of the operational efficiencies, you've missed the opportunity. And I'd love to hear you expound on the 100,000 plus job program that you've created and partnered with the IBEW. Let the audience know about that because I think that's the next piece because workforce is key.
So just one point you said, when done right. I think what's really important is, and again we say this a lot at Google, responsible execution is a choice and it actually requires a commitment and an investment and we take that responsibility seriously because that's the only way to deliver what I think all of us in this room want: protecting energy affordability, adding to capacity.
On the jobs front, we're very excited about this. The US is ahead in technology. We're ahead in chips, we're ahead in models. That gap is closing with China, but we're ahead. The concern is that you can't deliver the upside from AI without infrastructure to power it. And that China has been moving at a very aggressive pace, a very sustained and aggressive pace. So there's an opportunity here to build out what we're doing across the US, but there is a shortage of jobs — electricians, welders, construction.
Every job we create in the data center creates nine additional jobs. It's a wonderful multiplier effect, but there's a job shortage and these are high paying jobs. So, about over a year ago, we created a program with the Electrical Training Alliance. And we said, 'What we want to do is we know how to do digital skilling programs. We know there's a need for electricians. That's not our core competence, obviously. How can we work together?' So, we announced that we are working with them, funding an electrician training, electrical worker training program.
And I will say, whenever we show up in a state and talk about a data center opening, and we have somebody who is leading the recruiting for this electrician training program, you can see people see what the upside is in their community. I was in Missouri about two weeks ago, and we actually made our investment announcement at a training center. And it was so moving. There was a woman there, Danielle, I will never forget, who is going through the electrician training program. She was trained to be a welder. And when I asked, 'How did you get into this program?' She said, 'I'm a mom. My husband passed away, and I need a career, not a job. I was a bartender. That didn't give me the security that I need. This is not a job you're training me for. It's a career. And the benefits are there, the compensation is there.'
That's what we need. We need Danielles in every town across America who are saying, 'With the investment that we collectively make, and we welcome working with everyone in this room to build this out, we're creating really meaningful career pathways for people and for communities.' And so, we love this program.
What I appreciate about what you just did with Danielle, the power of storytelling. And when you hear all the narrative out there, it's not being told. We hear the backlash that's coming from states and local communities about we don't want a data center here or there. What can we do as an industry? And when you look around all of our partners here, so much investment. Drew Maloney, our CEO, talked about $1.4 trillion being invested in infrastructure, critical grid, to make this happen. All of our partners here are partnering to help meet that demand. What can we do to partner with you and others to tell this story?
Well, I think there are two parts to the narrative that are important that authentically will tell Americans why this build-out is positive. One is everything that you've already raised, which is that the facts support that investments actually help basically subsidize part of what would otherwise be rising rates. Like, we are not adding to that if done right. And so, this notion that we're investing to add capacity, protect affordability is meaningfully substantive.
We need to get to the jobs point, that people understand that there are job skilling opportunities and many open jobs that are created as a result of this. And we're creating that opportunity. So, one is just the industry itself. What are we doing? How are we comporting ourselves to deliver? I would add water to that as well. There's growing anxiety about it. At Google, we put out a paper this morning, a blog this morning, just to lay out our commitments around water. Because the reality is there's a disconnect between the anxiety out there, precisely because we need to be filling it in with the proof points.
If as an industry, moving from water-cooled to air-cooled where it makes sense to do so, making a commitment about replenishing water — you can Google it and see all of our commitments — we hope that that becomes a standard and is understood that is the way that we will approach development of the energy infrastructure that's needed. I think the other part that's really important is to make it clear why this is beneficial to every American across the country, why it matters for them, their children, their parents, their community. And there are so many ways where the upside potential is there.
One that you and I just talked about that I think is so important is in the area of health care. I'm a two-time cancer survivor. So, I'm very focused on what's the data around advancements in cancer care. And the reality is that where I was treated, amazing hospital in New York, Memorial Sloan Kettering, the survival rate that I was dealing with is 50% higher than in most of the country. And that is unconscionable. One in two Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. One in two. And the fact that a vast majority of the country is seeing that kind of delta in survival rates when we can address it with the application of technology in the right way.
Or the fact that there's a shortage of nurses in America and we can free nurses from administrative drudgery which gives them back 30% of their time, which means a capacity increase to serve people who need care. Until we deliver that across the heartland of America, rural America, everywhere, so that people say, 'Oh, I see a difference here.' And I see it in the way teachers are getting support so they can spend time with my child. I think we need to be able to show proof points. And they're starting to come. They need to come at a faster rate. And I think you're absolutely right. Any way we can work together on putting the proof points out there to both the upside and how we're protecting on the downside is really important.
I love the way you weave in your own story and connect it with people because this is what people are dealing with and thinking about every day. How does this benefit or impact my life and my ability to have a livelihood in the future? I've heard you say this and I'd love for you to break it down for this group in terms of the job creation from AI. Because you really systematically just walked us through it. Could you spend a moment on that?
