Cheap electricity for data centers could give Russia competitive advantage in long term - Dmitriev

MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - Cheap electricity for data centers, a rapidly growing category of consumers, could become a long-term competitive advantage for the Russian economy, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) director Kirill Dmitriev said.

"We believe that it [Russia's competitive advantage] partly lies in supplying electricity to artificial intelligence, and the capacity to supply energy to data centers at a lower cost than other countries. This could be a significant long-term advantage," Dmitriev said at a plenary session of Russian Energy Week 2025.

He referred back to an idea voiced previously by Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the supply of digital infrastructure using local electricity generation facilities, which run on "closed" energy resources in the local area.

Dmitriev said that tough monetary policy made it necessary to use different sources of funding to implement large investment projects in the energy sector, including these ones. "It is important to think about how to finance them, including through the use of pension funds and project lending. Only using debt with the rate at its current level is undoubtedly ineffective in many ways," he said.

Dmitriev said the RDIF's Middle Eastern and Asian partners were "all willing to invest in our energy projects".