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AI’s Physical Bottlenecks Beyond Chips

November 4, 2026 · 30 min

Show notes

The AI boom has largely been framed as a race for chips and compute, but as the technology scales, some of its biggest constraints are becoming increasingly physical. On this week’s episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, Stephen Byrd, global head of thematic and sustainability research at Morgan Stanley, joins Shaheen Contractor, Bloomberg Intelligence senior sustainable finance research analyst, to explore whether electricity and infrastructure could become the next major bottlenecks to AI growth. They discuss energy affordability and security, the implications for the energy transition and what physical constraints could emerge next. The conversation also examines where investors may still be underestimating the risks and opportunities created by the AI build-out.

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