Tech giants pledge to shoulder US data centre power costs

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 5, 2026 – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and several AI companies have gathered with President Donald Trump to sign a pledge that would bring them to shoulder the cost of new electricity generation needed to power their data centres, the White House announced.

The so-called “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” commits technology companies to “build, bring or buy” all the electricity needed to power their data centres, including from new power plants or expanded generation capacity, while also funding upgrades to power delivery systems and agreeing to special electricity rate arrangements with utilities.

Oracle, xAI and OpenAI also signed the pledge as scrutiny grows over the impact of rapidly expanding data centres on electricity costs.

The initiative follows concerns from lawmakers and communities that the proliferation of data centres will raise electricity prices for households and small businesses in the US. It is not clear that the pledge will immediately ease pressure on power grids, as new generation assets may not be connected fast enough to match the growth in power demand from data centres.

Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are among the world’s largest technology companies, operating global cloud computing, AI and digital infrastructure businesses supported by extensive data centre networks. Their platforms deliver services ranging from online search and e-commerce to social media, enterprise software and cloud computing, making them some of the largest corporate electricity consumers globally.

Photo by Igor Omilaev

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