Dan Ackerman

data centers, they use so much electricity that they have to go through this whole special permitting and review process before they're allowed to connect to the power grid.

They have to wait in what's called an interconnection queue, which is basically just a lineup of all the other power-hungry developments that are trying to get built.

So, you know, it's this list of factory projects and data center projects.

And in a lot of parts of the country,

that interconnection queue is a really long line.

It can take years to get approval.

So a lot of data centers are saying, okay, screw it.

We're not going to wait to connect to the grid.

We're just going to power ourselves.

We'll generate our own electricity on site.

Yeah, so in addition to those signature yellow trucks, Caterpillar makes electric generators.

They make these natural gas-powered engines that crank out electricity, and it's the kind of equipment that in the past would mostly be used for backup power, like it would be an emergency generator at a hospital, for example, if there were a power outage.

But because these data centers today are starting to go off grid, these Caterpillar generators are now being used more and more as a primary source of electricity, not as a backup.

And these generators are just flying off the shelves.

Yeah, so I mean, it starts with the heavy equipment, right?

You know, my three-year-old gets really excited every time he sees one of those big yellow Caterpillar excavators.

But think about what is inside that excavator.

There's a big engine in there, right?

So Caterpillar has been manufacturing engines

for decades.