White House to rally utilities, data centers over AI power costs

Earlier this year, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a voluntary "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" at a White House ceremony, committing to finance the electricity infrastructure needed for their AI projects rather than passing those costs on to existing utility customers.

The companies agreed to help pay for new power generation, grid upgrades and other costs tied to their data centers, including unused reserved capacity. The White House said the commitments were designed to prevent households from subsidizing the growth of AI infrastructure.

The new event is expected to broaden those commitments by bringing together electric utilities, companies that build and operate data centers on behalf of Big Tech, and governors of states on the front lines of expanding the power infrastructure needed to accommodate the expected surge in electricity demand, the people familiar with the plans said.