Big Tech pledges to pay power costs for AI data centers

On Wednesday at a White House roundtable, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed the non-binding Ratepayer Protection Pledge, agreeing to pay the energy and grid upgrade costs for their AI data centers and not to pass those costs to consumers.

The companies promised to ‘build, bring, or buy’ the power needed to operate new facilities and to fund any related infrastructure. They also agreed to cover the cost of generation or grid capacity they add, whether they use it.

The signatories pledged to hire locally, provide skills training, and make on-site backup generators available to the wider grid to help prevent shortages.

President Donald Trump, who introduced the pledge in his State of the Union, addressed the roundtable. He told attendees, “The data centers… need some PR help,” and said he expects the plan to prevent local electricity prices from rising where data centers are built.

A Harvard Kennedy School report in February estimated data centers could demand up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028. U.S. Energy Information Administration figures show residential energy prices rose about 6% in 2025 and are projected to rise through 2027 and 2028.

Some planned data center projects were canceled after local opposition citing fears of higher energy costs and strains on infrastructure. Trump referenced those cancellations and said the pledge could change how communities respond to future proposals.

The pledge is voluntary and non-binding. The White House did not provide details on enforcement, monitoring or how compliance would be verified, leaving questions about remedies if companies fail to meet their commitments.

Company officials face scrutiny over the power demands of advanced AI workloads. The firms describe the pledge as a way to address grid strain and household price concerns while they continue building AI-focused data centers.