Big tech to soon pay for power costs for AI data centres? Trump has a plan amid surging energy demands: Report
According to a report by Bloomberg, US President Donald Trump, together with the governors of many Northeastern US states, are preparing to announce an emergency wholesale electricity tender on Friday. The announcement could mean US tech companies may have to finance new power plants.
surprise plan, Bloomberg The report, due out Friday morning, comes as tensions mount over how the United States can power power-hungry data centers without increasing power bills for households and businesses.
Data centers have become an absolute necessity for technology companies that are aggressively pushing for AI to win the global race.
What’s on Trump’s agenda?
according to Bloomberg Donald Trump’s administration and some US governors plan to ask grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC to hold an auction for technology companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity, according to the report.
The report also says the auction will yield contracts supporting construction of the new power plant worth about $15 billion, according to a White House official familiar with the development.
“We don’t have much to say about it. It looks like we weren’t invited to their event tomorrow and won’t be there,” PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields told Bloomberg via email.
The move by Trump and the governors comes as concerns grow that electricity demand in the PJM-run region is far outstripping supply.
What does this move mean for tech companies and US citizens?
If Trump holds the auction as planned, tech giants will be required to pay for electricity throughout the life of the contracts, regardless of whether they use electricity.
The move will provide years of secure income in a market notorious for price fluctuations and generator bankruptcies, according to Bloomberg.
The action will also benefit millions of US citizens.
Already home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, PJM Interconnection serves more than 67 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest.
It expects systemwide peak demand to increase 17% from this year’s peak by 2030.
Tech giants paying for electricity to run their data centers can help people avoid being burdened by companies using large amounts of electricity.
Trump has repeatedly talked about power plants being built next to data centers, and he further reinforced that idea in a social media post Monday when he insisted that big tech companies that build data centers should “pay their own way.”
“I never want Americans to pay higher Electric bills because of Data Centers,” Trump wrote in his post.
