Washington, March 5
President Donald Trump has unveiled a new initiative aimed at powering the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence in the United States while preventing electricity costs from rising for households, bringing together some of the world's largest technology companies in what the White House called a "Ratepayer Protection Pledge."
Speaking at a White House roundtable with executives from major tech firms on Wednesday (local time), Trump said the agreement would allow companies building massive AI data centres to generate or pay for their own electricity rather than relying on existing power grids.
"These are exciting times," Trump said at the event.
Under the pledge, technology companies including Google, Meta, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI and Oracle committed to funding the energy generation required for their expanding AI operations.
"Under this new agreement, big tech companies are committing to fully cover the costs of increased electricity production required for AI data centres," Trump said.
He said the arrangement would ensure that electricity costs for ordinary Americans would not increase as the technology industry expands.
"This means that the tech companies and the data centres will be able to get the electricity they need all without driving up electricity costs for consumers," he said.
Trump said companies would build new energy capacity to support their projects.
"Build your own power plant," he said.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the policy was essential for maintaining America's technological leadership.
"The nation that leads in AI will be the military superpower," Wright said.
Google President Ruth Porat said the company was expanding electricity generation capacity alongside its data centre investments.
"In Texas alone, we have contracted to add more than 7800MW of net new energy generation and capacity to the grid," Porat said.
Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick said the company was committing to cover the full cost of energy used in its facilities.
"We want to fully cover the cost of the energy that we use in our data centres," she said.
She added that the company's investments were already helping reduce energy costs in some communities.
"In Louisiana... we have been able to lower the costs of so many Louisiana payers, energy payers, an estimated $650 million over 15 years," she said.
Trump said the policy would help ensure the United States remains dominant in emerging technologies.
"The United States is leading the world in AI by a lot," he said. "We're leading China. We're leading everybody by a lot."
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has driven a surge in demand for data centres, which require enormous amounts of electricity to power advanced computing systems.
Governments around the world are increasingly examining how to expand power generation and grid capacity to support AI infrastructure without raising electricity prices for consumers.
- IANS
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