Trump Puts Pressure on Tech Companies to Pick Up the Tab for Data Center Energy

President Donald Trump announced at his State of The Union address on Tuesday that he reached a deal with technology giants to address increasing energy costs related to data centers.

Trump said “major tech companies” have agreed to pay for the energy that they consume to take pressure off local energy grids that have struggled with the increased demand of massive data centers necessary to build artificial intelligence.

“Many Americans are also concerned that energy demand from AI data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills,” Trump, who did not disclose which companies agreed to this pledge, said in his speech.

“I’m pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new Rate Payer Protection Pledge. You know what that is, we’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” he added. “This is a unique strategy never used in this country before. We have an old grid. It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that’s needed.”

Advancing AI and data center infrastructure has become a defining policy of Trump’s second term, who has been an ally to Big Tech since he returned to office last year. This position is a shift from Trump’s full support for data centers and a response to growing discontent with Republican data center policy.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry from NOTUS requesting additional information.

Anthropic’s head of external affairs Sarah Heck said in a statement the company is joining the agreement.

“American families shouldn’t pick up the tab for AI. In support of the [White House] rate payer protection pledge, Anthropic has committed to covering 100% of electricity price increases that consumers face from our data centers,” Heck wrote in a post on X.

Technology companies developing advanced AI models are expected to spend trillions of dollars to build new massive data facilities that can consume the energy needed by a community. This AI infrastructure buildout has contributed to skyrocketing utility bills for millions across the country, sparking growing backlash against the construction of more of these facilities.

Trump has signed executive orders aimed at advancing AI development, accelerating the adoption of AI in the federal government and limiting the ability of states to regulate the technology.

However, data center backlash has become a major friction point for Republicans and the conservative movement at large ahead of a midterm election that’s shaping up to be increasingly competitive. Congressional Republicans split on how to best regulate the technology and a growing number of voters have negative views on data centers and AI, according to recent polling by Echelon Insights, a polling and digital strategy firm.

Last year, grassroots opposition blocked tens of billions of dollars in data center projects, according to Data Center Watch, an advocacy group tracking local opposition to data centers. Now, bipartisan proposals to regulate and even to temporarily pause new data center developments are catching momentum at both the state and local levels — echoing a similar proposal in Congress by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Trump claimed that the agreement he announced on Tuesday will address some of the underlying reasons fueling data center backlash.

“They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community, and very substantially down,” Trump said.

“All the cities and cities and towns, you’re going to see some good things happen over the next number of years,” he added.

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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.