President Donald Trump said U.S. tech leaders will make “major changes” to ensure that Americans will not face higher bills for power used by artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
“I never want Americans to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday. “Therefore, my Administration is working with major American technology companies to secure their commitment to the American people, and we will have much to announce in the coming weeks.”
Microsoft will be the first company to commit to this goal, the president added.
Why It Matters
Technology companies in the U.S. have been racing to open up data centers across the country which can power AI, as they bet big on the future of such technology in what some have called America’s new gold rush.
As of November 2025, the U.S. had 4,165 data centers, the most of any other country in the world, according to a Statista report. But wherever these data centers have been built, electricity demand has gone up, sending utility bills soaring for residents, experts have found.
Data centers nationwide consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2024, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA) cited by the Pew Research Center. That was more than 4 percent of the nation’s total electricity consumption for that same year—and data centers’ energy consumption is expected to more than double by 2030.
What To Know
Trump’s announcement comes amid growing concerns among lawmakers and American households over the impact of energy-hungry data centers.
Last month, three Democratic U.S. senators—Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut—said they were launching an investigation into whether big tech companies were passing higher utility costs for data centers to U.S. households.
The three senators cited data from DC Byte analyzed by Bloomberg which found that, in regions with significant data center activity, electricity bills have soared as much as 267 percent over the past five years.
In letters to Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, the lawmakers asked the companies for answers.
“We write in light of alarming reports that tech companies are passing on the costs of building and operating their data centers to ordinary Americans as AI data centers’ energy usage has caused residential electricity bills to skyrocket in nearby communities,” wrote Warren, Van Hollen and Blumenthal. “Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”
The senators said they were waiting for answers by no later than January 12. Now, it seems like the president and his team have been having a similar conversation with U.S. big tech companies.
Trump said that Microsoft, after working with his team, will introduce “major changes” starting as early as this week to ensure that U.S. consumers “don’t ‘pick up the tab’ for their power consumption, in the form of paying higher utility bills.”
Microsoft has already committed to cover utility costs in places such as Wisconsin, where the company is building a new data center, but has not yet made a pledge to cover costs nationwide.
“I just want you to know we are doing everything we can, and I believe we’re succeeding, in managing this issue well, so that you all don’t have to pay more for electricity because of our presence,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and vice chair, said at a town-hall meeting in Wisconsin in September.
Newsweek contacted Microsoft for comment by email on Tuesday morning, outside of standard working hours.
Trump’s comments come at a time when many Americans are feeling disgruntled with his handling of the economy. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to slash electricity and energy prices in half within his first 18 months in office—but has so far failed to keep this promise.
Energy inflation in the country rose to 4.20 percent in November from 2.80 percent in September of 2025, according to Trading Economics.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday: “I never want Americans to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers…We are the ‘HOTTEST’ country in the world, and number one in AI. Data centers are key to that boom, and keeping Americans FREE and SECURE but, the big technology companies who build them must ‘pay their own way’.”
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Richard Blumenthal wrote last month: “Recent increases to consumers’ utility bills are directly linked to the tech industry’s data center buildout. When utilities expand their grid infrastructure, they incorporate the cost of expansion into their utility rates, passing the extra costs onto their customers.”
They added: “Tech companies have paid lip service in support of covering their data centers’ energy costs, but their actions have shown the opposite… And on top of failing to pay their fair share of their electricity rates, tech companies regularly hide as much information as possible from the communities in which their data centers will be built.
“To protect consumers, data centers must pay a greater share of the costs upfront for future energy usage and updates to the electrical grid provided specifically to accommodate data centers’ energy needs.”
What Happens Next
In his Truth Social post on Monday, Trump promised “more to come soon” in terms of tech companies committing to keeping energy bills down for Americans.
The president has not specified which companies have been involved in negotiations with the Trump administration. But companies with a significant data center presence in the U.S. include Meta, Google, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon.
