Tech companies need to build their own power plants to support their energy-hungry AI projects, President Trump said during Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech — his latest effort to ease energy costs for ordinary Americans.
“I’m pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new rate-payer protection pledge. You know what that is? We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” Trump said.
“We have an old grid,” he continued. “It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that’s needed.
“So I’m telling them, they can build their own plant. They’re going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company’s ability to get electricity while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you.”
Trump did not elaborate on which companies have committed to the pledge. The White House is planning to host tech companies in early March to finalize plans, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
OpenAI, Google and other companies at the forefront of the artificial intelligence race have faced pressure in recent months over concerns that their ambitious projects are straining the power grid and leading to higher costs for households.
Some firms, including Anthropic and Microsoft, have already announced efforts to cover electricity costs associated with powering their AI data centers.
As Trump spoke, Anthropic’s head of policy Sarah Heck reiterated that the firm has committed to “covering 100% of electricity price increases that consumers face from our data centers.”
Elon Musk, who recently merged his aerospace company SpaceX with Grok chatbot maker xAI, has discussed a bold plan to build solar-powered data centers in space.
Elsewhere, OpenAI’s Sam Altman acknowledged during a recent appearance at a summit in India that the tech industry would likely need to move toward alternative energy sources as demand increases.
“Not per query, but in total – because the world is using so much AI … and we need to move towards nuclear or wind and solar very quickly,” Altman said.
