US technology giants have signed a White House pledge to cover the power costs of their artificial intelligence data centers, which the Trump administration says will ensure consumers don’t pay higher utility bills.
The non-binding “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” was signed by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI on Wednesday, promising the companies would “build, bring, or buy” the energy needed for building and operating data centers and not pass on costs to consumers.
“The data centers […] They need some PR help,” US President Donald Trump said at a roundtable attended by government officials and representatives from Big Tech firms.
“People think that if a data center goes in, their electricity prices are going to go up, and that’s not happening. It’s not going to happen — and for the areas where it did happen, it won’t happen anymore,” he added.
Data centers are cropping up across the US amid an AI boom, but the power-hungry technology is demanding more than the available capacity in some parts of the country, according to a Harvard Kennedy School report from February.
The report said that data centers could demand up to 12% of all US electricity consumption by 2028. US Energy Information Administration data show that residential energy prices increased 6% in 2025 and are expected to continue rising through 2027 and 2028.
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Trump announced the pledge in his State of the Union address, and it comes ahead of the midterm elections in November, where voters are concerned about cost-of-living pressures and the impact of AI data centers on the energy grid.
“Some centers were rejected by communities for that, and now I think it’s going to be just the opposite,” Trump said, referring to data centers canceled after locals opposed the projects.
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The pledge promises that companies will pay for all new power infrastructure required for their data centers and will pay the rates for the infrastructure and power brought online, whether they use it or not.
The companies also promised to hire locally, offer skill development programs and make their backup generators available to the grid to prevent power shortages.
It’s not clear how Big Tech will be held to its promises, and the White House did not share how it would ensure the companies follow through on the pledge.
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