As of March 4, 2026, the White House announced a nonbinding Ratepayer Protection Pledge with major AI and tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI, to ensure that data center expansion does not raise residential electricity costs. [1] The data center developers promised to build or buy the generation resources needed to power their data centers, pay for all infrastructure-related costs, transmission and distribution equipment, negotiate rate structure with local utilities and state governments, and make backup generation available to grid operators to use in emergencies. [2] In return, President Trump promised the companies permit approvals within a span of two to four weeks, although the federal government does not have the authority to approve new generation permits.

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/president-trump-secures-historic-commitment-to-keep-electricity-costs-down-amid-data-center-boom/#:~:text=White%20House%20Special%20Advisor%20for,not%20passed%20onto%20American%20households.

[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-advances-energy-affordability-with-the-ratepayer-protection-pledge/#:~:text=Under%20President%20Trump's%20leadership%2C%20Amazon,ensuring%20such%20expenses%20are%20not