Who pays for Electrification and Artificial Intelligence?: POWERING UP EUROPE

Research evidence excerpt

Who pays for Electrification and Artificial Intelligence?: POWERING UP EUROPE

Equity Research

15 July 2026 | 3:25AM CEST

POWERING UP EUROPE

Who pays for Electrification and Artificial Intelligence?

We explore the cost of electrifying Europe and of rolling out datacenters to support Alberto Gandolfi

+39(02)8022-0157 |

artificial intelligence. Our analysis suggests that electricity bill increases over the coming alberto.gandolfi@gs.com

Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE - Milan

ten years will be much lower than anticipated, averaging 2-4% pa. This should ease branch

concerns over affordability-driven regulatory intervention and strongly corroborates our Mafalda Pombeiro

thesis of an “earnings super cycle” in Utilities and ongoing multiple expansion. +44(20)7552-9425mafalda.pombeiro@gs.com|

Goldman Sachs International

Even with electrification and AI, power bill growth would be just 2-4% pa. Over Ajay Patel

the past ten years, power bills for a typical European household have increased by +44(20)7552-1168Goldman Sachs International| ajay.patel@gs.com

+5% pa. Over the coming ten years, we estimate that electricity bills will increase at a Dhwani Khenwar

slower pace, despite accelerating electrification and rising AI adoption. Our base +1(332)245-7724dhwani.khenwar@gs.com|

case (EU targets largely missed, slow DC roll-out) implies +2% annual growth in bills, Goldman Sachs India SPL

while our hyper-adoption scenario for electrification and datacenters increases this Lawrence Lavizani +44(20)7051-1060 |

to +4% pa. These figures are significantly below prevailing expectations and reflect lawrence.lavizani@gs.com Goldman Sachs International

two common misconceptions about capex and power demand.

North vs South divide. We estimate that annual electricity bill increases could reach