Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump is convening technology executives at the White House next week to sign pledges committing their companies to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers.
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Representatives of firms including Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. are expected to attend a March 4 event with the president, a White House official said. Others on the invite list include Elon Musk’s xAI Corp., Oracle Corp. and OpenAI Inc.
While the promises wouldn’t be binding — and would lack the force of law — administration officials believe that formal, public pledges could bring accountability and offer some assurance to consumers worried that the rapid development of data centers that are crucial for artificial intelligence could lead to environmental damage and higher costs.
“Under this bold initiative, these massive companies will build, bring or buy their own power supply for new AI data centers, ensuring that Americans’ electricity bills will not increase as demand grows,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Wednesday. “President Trump is committed to ensuring American AI dominance while simultaneously lowering costs for working families.”
Fox News reported details of the event earlier.
The ratepayer protection pledge marks the latest step in Trump’s push to address a significant political challenge — mounting electricity prices — before the November midterm elections.
Data centers that are essential to expanding computing power — and driving the AI innovation Trump has championed — are encountering a growing public backlash, with Americans worried they’ll be left footing the bill. The resistance is also being fed by fears about the facilities’ use of water and land as well as their reliance on diesel generators for backup power.
While Trump vowed during the 2024 campaign to slash electricity bills in half, power costs have instead gone up, fed by surging demand from data centers, industrial operations and increased electrification of home heating, cooking and transportation. Nationally, the average retail price for electricity hit 17.24 cents per kilowatt-hour in December, a 6% increase from a year earlier.
Earlier: Trump and the Markets Love AI, But a Voter Backlash Is Brewing
Some 64% of voters identified utility costs as the most concerning issue when polled about data-center development by Blue Rose Research for the advocacy group Climate Power.
