Trump calls on Big Tech to supply their own electricity for AI data centers (updated)

[Julio Franco]

Update (March 5): Major tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Oracle, OpenAI, and xAI have now signed a voluntary "ratepayer protection pledge" at the White House, promising to cover the energy costs of their rapidly expanding AI data centers rather than passing those costs on to local electricity customers.

The companies say they will invest in their own power generation, fund grid upgrades, and negotiate special energy agreements with utilities to ensure the massive electricity demands of AI infrastructure do not drive up household bills. However, the pledge is non-binding, and energy experts have warned that without enforceable rules or regulatory oversight, it remains unclear whether the initiative will meaningfully protect consumers as data center power consumption continues to surge.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

Neither nuclear power or "data centers" are real, to begin with. Just another lie to raise rates and increase profits.

 

[antiproduct]

Can we also make them fab their own memory modules while we're at it?

 

[mhoida]

You have a bunch of billionaires grinning at each other, proclaiming we're gonna to start playing fair now, See we just signed a piece of paper proclaiming that we will, just because we got all those nondisclosure agreements doesn't mean we were hiding anything.

 

[Norsiiii]

Very sensible, but why stop there? If you build a new home, you should likewise be compelled to provide your own source of power also, so you don't raise rates for your neighbors. Supplying your own water and sewage treatment and disposal would make sense too.

Or ... we could just stick with that same free market system that's worked so well in the past. That would, though, require environmentalists to stop blocking utilities from constructing new demand-based power plants.

....but that is already exactly how it works in many places - the developers of new housing estates ARE the ones who pay for all the new utility connections and infrastructure to be built there and often on-top of that also pay a developer contribution to the local authorities for exactly that purpose...

 

[Endymio]

....but that is already exactly how it works in many places - the developers of new housing estates ARE the ones who pay for all the new utility connections and infrastructure to be built there.

Paying for a cable drop from the local power grid is not the same as paying for a new electric power generation station to supply that grid. To quote Jules Winfield, "it ain't the same ballpark. It ain't the same league. It ain't even the same **** sport."

I've never heard of a case where the latter occurred for a developer building a new subdivision. If you have, please provide references.