The rapid growth of AI data centers connecting to the national electrical grid has contributed to a rise in consumer electricity prices, pushing the average national cost up by over 6% in the past year. This trend poses a political challenge for incumbents as the fall elections approach, and President Donald Trump addressed the issue during his State of the Union speech last night. “We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs, ” Trump stated. “They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one’s prices will go up. ” The hyperscale companies implicated are already aware of this expectation. In recent weeks, several have publicly committed to covering their electricity costs by constructing their own power facilities, paying higher electricity rates, or combining both approaches. This is part of a broader strategy to address public relations concerns regarding data center expansion and to win support from skeptical local communities. On January 11, Microsoft declared its policy “to ensure that the electricity cost of serving our datacenters is not passed on to residential customers. ” On January 26, OpenAI pledged to “paying its own way on energy, so that our operations don’t increase your energy prices. ” Anthropic followed on February 11 with a similar commitment to “cover electricity price increases that consumers face from our data centers. ” Most recently, Google announced the launch of the world’s largest battery project to support a data center in Minnesota. However, the practical implications of these pledges—and who will be responsible for determining which data centers cause specific price increases—remain unclear.

The White House has yet to release the text of the proposed agreement. Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly criticized the arrangement on social media, stating, “A handshake agreement with Big Tech over data center costs isn’t good enough. Americans need a guarantee that energy prices won’t soar and communities have a say. ” White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers noted that next week, representatives from companies are expected to formally sign the pledge at the White House. Reportedly, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI will attend, although none of these companies have officially confirmed their participation.