Major U.S. technology companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have signed a White House pledge to cover the electricity costs required to power artificial intelligence data centres.
The non-binding “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” commits the companies to “build, bring, or buy” the energy needed for new data centres and avoid passing infrastructure costs on to consumers.
“The data centers... need some PR help,”
Said U.S. President, Donald Trump, during a White House roundtable with government officials and technology executives.
Trump said public concerns about rising electricity bills linked to data centre expansion were misplaced and argued the pledge would ensure local communities would not face higher energy costs.
Data centres have expanded rapidly across the United States during the AI boom, with a Harvard Kennedy School report estimating they could account for up to 12% of national electricity consumption by 2028.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows residential electricity prices rose 6% in 2025 and are projected to keep climbing through 2027 and 2028.
The companies also pledged to fund new power infrastructure, hire local workers and provide backup generators to support the grid, although the White House did not detail how the commitments would be enforced.