The White House is calling on AI companies to absorb electricity rate increases tied to their massive datacenter expansions, but there's a catch - most of the industry's biggest players already made those commitments months ago. The demand, coming from the Trump administration, targets hyperscalers like Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic as datacenter energy consumption becomes a political flashpoint. The move appears designed to preempt public backlash over rising utility bills, even though the companies have been negotiating cost-coverage agreements with utilities since late 2025.
The White House just made a big show of demanding something the AI industry already agreed to do. In a move that feels more like political theater than policy breakthrough, the Trump administration is pushing major AI companies to cover electricity rate increases caused by their energy-hungry datacenters - commitments that Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic made months ago.
The directive comes as AI infrastructure becomes one of the hottest political issues of 2026. Datacenter electricity consumption is projected to triple by 2028, according to industry forecasts, putting immense strain on regional power grids. Residential ratepayers are already seeing bills climb in areas with concentrated datacenter development, creating a perfect storm of voter anger that politicians can't ignore.
But here's what makes this announcement curious: the hyperscalers saw this coming. Microsoft announced agreements with multiple utilities in late 2025 to cover incremental infrastructure costs and rate impacts from its AI datacenter expansion. Meta followed with similar commitments tied to its GPU cluster buildouts. Even OpenAI, despite its younger corporate structure, negotiated cost-sharing frameworks with power providers near its planned datacenter sites.
