Are consumers doomed to pay more for electricity due to data center buildouts?

Big Tech is set to agree to build its own power plants for data centers and shield consumers from rising electricity costs, but companies face daunting logistical obstacles to delivering on the pledge championed by President Donald Trump.

At a White House event on Wednesday, executives from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI are due to sign the pledge to supply their own power instead of relying on a grid connection.

Trump hailed the plan in his State of the Union speech last week, promising US consumers that “no one’s prices will go up” as a result of “energy demand from AI data centers.”

But industry executives have suggested the commitment will not be binding, while experts warn it is likely impossible to fully insulate consumers from the extra power demand coming from the vast expansion of data centers to run AI.

“Regardless of how these data ...