Washington, DC — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that companies building massive data centers should provide financial “dividends” to surrounding communities as opposition grows over the projects’ electricity use, water consumption and potential impact on utility bills.
Trump said on Truth Social that companies have discovered financial payments can turn unpopular projects into locally supported developments. His administration has aggressively promoted new data center construction as part of its effort to expand U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure and compete with China.
The president also said new facilities should generate their own electricity and either sell or provide excess power to local grids, an effort aimed at preventing households from absorbing the massive new energy demand created by AI computing.
Data centers have increasingly encountered bipartisan resistance in communities concerned that taxpayers and utility customers could subsidize infrastructure benefiting some of the world’s wealthiest technology companies.
Congress has responded as well. The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 in September, which would require regulators to consider whether large electricity users should bear the costs of new generation and transmission infrastructure. A subsequent Senate vote received 57 votes but failed to reach the 60 needed to advance.
The debate is likely to intensify as Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and other companies spend billions expanding AI-related infrastructure nationwide.
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