Leaders worldwide are moving fast to deploy AI at scale. But scaling AI means more data centers—and data centers consume vast quantities of energy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey’s Jesse Noffsinger and Pankaj Sachdeva speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what needs to happen to build new, bigger data centers quickly, as well as to sate their growing hunger for power.

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A generational shift: The future of foreign aid

Risk rebalancing: Five important geopolitical-risk questions for CIOs

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

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M&A activity is down, as is private equity investment, and companies are facing a range of new geopolitical tensions. Still, there is a path to growth through M&A for those companies that maintain an active acquisition strategy, understand their capabilities, and avoid certain assets, says McKinsey Senior Partner Jake Henry. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, he and McKinsey Senior Partner Mieke Van Oostende join McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to discuss findings from McKinsey’s 2025 M&A report. They also discuss the importance of culture in M&A integrations.

In our second segment, McKinsey Senior Partner Dana Maor shares how CEOs can and should stay connected to their teams with Managing Editor of Podcasts, Laurel Moglen. (Starts at 15:58)

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The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers

In a moment of tariffs, can the world find balance and trust to thrive?

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

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People are asked to update the operating systems on their phones all the time. What if leaders applied that same kind of polishing and bug fixing to themselves? McKinsey research shows that executives who periodically review and revise their priorities, roles, time, and energy tend to be more productive, work more consciously, and drive change more effectively. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Senior Partner Arne Gast joins McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to discuss how leaders can tune up their own personal operating models.

Articles mentioned:

America at 250

In a moment of tariffs, can the world find balance and trust to thrive?

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

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