Jakarta, INTI - Rapidly developing AI technology requires significant energy. Former Minister of Trade, Gita Wirjawan, explained that 10,000 kWh/hour of electricity is needed per capita.
Only a few countries have met this demand, such as the United States, China, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam. Meanwhile, Indonesia only has 1,300 kWh per capita.
"I believe that for a country to be able to utilize AI, it needs 10,000 kWh of electricity per capita," said Gita at the XLSMART Bravo 500 Summit in Jakarta on Thursday, June 11, 2026.
AI Models Require More Energy
Gita explained that energy is crucial because AI models require 10 to 15 times the energy of a typical search engine.
"Because when you use Gemini, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, or anything else, it uses 10 to 15 times more energy than a Google search," he explained.
Indonesia’s Electricity Capacity Sustains Small Data Centers
On the same occasion, former Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara also made a similar statement. He quoted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regarding the five layers of AI, one of which concerns energy.
Rudiantara stated that Beijing's electricity capacity is far greater than that of all of Indonesia. The existing capacity is only sufficient for small data centers.
"Currently, we have capacity, but it's only for small-scale data centers," he explained.
Rudiantara also touched on the issue of building data centers amidst higher chip demand than supply. TSMC is known to hold the majority of the supply, reaching 90%, and he recommended gaining access to it.
"My advice is that if you want to build a data center with GPUs, we must have access to Taiwan, either directly or indirectly," Rudiantara said.
Conclusion
The development of artificial intelligence (AI) requires a massive energy supply. Gita Wirjawan stated that a country wishing to optimally utilize AI requires an electricity capacity of around 10,000 kWh per capita, while Indonesia currently only reaches around 1,300 kWh per capita. He stated that using AI services such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek requires 10–15 times more energy. Rudiantara assessed that Indonesia's electricity capacity is still limited and currently only sufficient to support small-scale data centers.
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