Trump says energy pledge by tech giants could bring down consumer costs

STORY: :: Trump says a new energy pledge means tech giants get the power they need without driving up consumer costs

:: March 4, 2026

:: The pledge includes a commitment by tech companies to bring or buy electricity supplies for their data centers

"And this agreement will ensure that America can maintain the most advanced AI infrastructure on the planet without American families being forced to pick up the tab. And that's why the early ones, they you know, they hook up to the electric utilities and they can't produce the kind of numbers, electric wires that they want and they end up raising the rates. It's not going to happen anymore and now it's going to go the opposite way. They'll make a lot of money and electric grids. We actually think they're not going to stay. I think they're going to actually, Chris, they're going to actually come down. Electric, so your electric bills will actually come down. It'll take a little while, but not long. So, this new strategy never tried before in any country will pave the way for continued American dominance in energy and technology working together. So, you're going to have great energy sources because you're going to build them yourself. And if they're not good, you make them a little bit bigger and better, right?"

Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and several artificial intelligence companies signed a pledge at the White House on Wednesday to bear the cost of new electricity generation to power their data centers.

The so-called "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" was first announced by Trump in his State of the Union Address, and comes as communities and state legislators increase scrutiny of rapidly proliferating data centers.

Data centers consume vast amounts of electricity to run server racks and cooling systems for the development of technologies like artificial intelligence.

The pledge includes a commitment by technology companies to bring or buy electricity supplies for their data centers, either from new power plants or existing plants with expanded output capacity. It also includes commitments from Big Tech to pay for upgrades to power delivery systems and to enter special electricity rate agreements with utilities.

The initiative is being launched ahead of the November midterm elections, with voters increasingly concerned about energy affordability and the increased strain on the country's power grids from data centers.