Trump says he and Big Tech have a deal to stop AI from spiking energy prices. It's short on details

President Donald Trump announced during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he had struck an agreement.

“I’m pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new rate payer protection pledge,” Trump said in the record-breaking 107-minute speech. “We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs, so that no one’s prices go up.”

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He added that an antiquated power grid risked getting strained due to the surging demand for electricity from data centers.

The pledge, though, was short on details. It was not immediately clear which tech companies agreed to the conditions, the timeline for the agreement to kick in, or what amount in savings Americans could expect. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported Trump is expected to convene tech executives in early March to formalize the initiative.

Some major tech companies like Microsoft $MSFT +1.35% and Anthropic are taking steps to finance their own power generation so Americans don’t get stuck with the bill from new data centers. Power bills have climbed in many parts of the U.S. because of increased utility demand from tech firms spending big on AI, and the president appears intent to head off possible AI-related backlash in the midterms.

The four tech giants Amazon $AMZN +0.98%, Microsoft, Meta $META -1.07%, and Google $GOOGL -0.74% are committed to spend $650 billion this year combined to develop their AI capabilities. That includes new data center construction.

Microsoft rolled out a “community-first AI infrastructure plan” in January that included a commitment to “pay our way” so the company’s data centers don’t cause a spike in residential electricity bills.

“We’ll ask utilities and public commissions to set our rates high enough to cover the electricity costs for our data centers,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post.

Anthropic made a similar pledge earlier this month and said it “will cover” any electricity price increase stemming from their data centers.

Some Democrats, though, pressed the Trump administration to do more in ensuring tech companies are held to their pledges.

“A handshake agreement with Big Tech over data center costs isn’t good enough,” Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, said in a social media post. “Americans need a guarantee that energy prices won’t soar and communities have a say.”

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