Trump unveils plan to shift power costs to AI data centers

Trump administration officials and a bipartisan group of governors announced a plan Friday to tackle high electricity prices by essentially having giant technology companies pay for the construction of new power supplies in the area managed by the largest United States grid operator.

At a White House event on Friday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, along with the governors from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, outlined a plan for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would make technology companies pay for new power plants in the PJM Interconnection, which manages much of the grid in the eastern U.S. It has seen rising prices that have been attributed to rising demand from the addition of data centers used for artificial intelligence companies.