Big Tech to meet Trump at White House to sign data center pledge
The major technology companies will meet President Donald Trump at the White House next week to sign a pledge that they will supply their own power for artificial intelligence data centers.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle and OpenAI will sign the agreement at the March 4 meeting, a White House official confirmed to CNBC Wednesday.
“Under this bold initiative, these massive companies will build, bring, or buy their own power supply for new AI data centers, ensuring that Americans’ electricity bills will not increase as demand grows,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told CNBC.
Fox News first reported the development.
Trump said during his State of the Union address Tuesday that he had secured such a pledge from the tech sector, but did not provide detail on what the agreement entails.
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” the president said. “They can build their own power plants as part of their factory so that no one’s prices will go up.”
Data centers are facing opposition in communities across the U.S. as people blame rising utility bills on the facilities’ huge electricity consumption.
The Trump administration has closely embraced the AI industry as an engine of economic growth and a pillar of U.S. national security. It is an alliance that poses political risks for the White House ahead of the mid-term elections.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger defeated their Republican opponents in landslide elections last November by campaigning against rising electricity prices.
The Trump administration has warned the tech companies that they risk a backlash if the public believes their data centers are driving up energy costs, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday.
“We want to see data centers developed,” Wright told reporters on a call. “We want to see them rapidly sited. We want to see communities welcoming them, but to do that, it’s necessary to have up front investments in the additional grid infrastructure needed.”
