President Donald Trump has welcomed fresh commitments from power utilities and data center developers to ensure technology companies pay for the electricity needed to drive energy-hungry artificial-intelligence systems. The White House has hailed the pledge, which seeks to shield U.S. consumers from the energy costs associated with data centers, as historic.
The president is working to have governors and electricity companies join the pledge to prevent consumers from facing higher utility bills. This follows an initial commitment announced by the president with leading AI and tech companies in March.
These measures arrive as average U.S. residential electricity rates have risen nearly 18 percent since Trump returned to office. The initial March pledge did little to comfort voters who are grappling with affordability issues and worry about competing for electricity, water, and land with tech companies controlled by billionaires.