The Trump administration wants some of the world’s largest technology companies to publicly commit to a new compact governing the rapid expansion of AI data centers, according to two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
A draft of the compact obtained by POLITICO lays out commitments designed to ensure data centers powering the AI boom do not raise household electricity prices, strain water supplies or undermine grid reliability — and that the companies driving power demand also carry the cost of building new infrastructure.
The proposed pact, which is not final and could be subject to change, is framed as a voluntary agreement between President Donald Trump and major U.S. tech companies and data center developers. It could bind OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other AI giants to a broad set of energy, water and community principles. None of these companies immediately responded to a request for comment.
The initiative, which the administration wants to roll out with a splashy White House event, has yet to be formally announced – and it remains unclear which companies have agreed to the compact or been invited to participate.
The compact would mark one of the most ambitious efforts to shape the footprint of AI infrastructure without imposing direct regulation, and comes a month after the White House made an unprecedented appeal to the mid-Atlantic energy grid operator to try to lower electricity prices.
Concerns have steadily risen that data centers’ enormous appetite for energy could drive prices up even more, which could become even more of a political liability for an administration that’s been all-in on the rapid, unbridled development of data centers. The compact is one way to try to tout work to blunt their impact ahead of the midterms.
“As President Trump announced weeks ago, top tech companies are working with the President to ‘pick up the tab’ for their power consumption as they build data centers. More to come soon!” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement.
A White House official said the draft is “is outdated and no longer accurate” without specifying which parts have changed.
The decentralized nature of the nation’s electricity grid means that grid operators, state regulators and utilities themselves would have to agree to set rules or to craft contracts in order to make aspects of the proposed compact actionable. The effort comes as electric utilities, regulators and lawmakers warn that the explosive growth of AI-driven data centers — the warehouse-sized buildings that run powerful AI chips and servers — could overwhelm regional power systems and drive up electricity bills for consumers already worried about the cost of living.
“People are skeptical. ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to further add insult to injury and drive up my energy prices.’ I understand their concerns,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with the POLITICO Energy podcast. “We are in dialogue with all the hyperscale developers about not only being a long-term force to drive down electricity prices on the grid, but to also be a short-term force to stop the existing price rises.”
Major tech companies known as “hyperscalers” are building bigger data centers to process more advanced AI computing. At the core of the compact is a requirement that AI data center developers pay 100 percent of the cost of new power generation needed to serve their facilities. The compact also calls on companies to sign long-term electricity contracts to ensure other customers don’t end up footing the bill if the data center fails.
Companies would similarly commit to paying the full cost of any current or future transmission upgrades required to interconnect new data centers to the grid.
In parallel, the tech companies would agree to work with federal, state and local regulators to establish power and transmission rates that, “in every manner possible,” hold harmless and ideally reduce residential electricity prices in the jurisdictions where data centers operate.
To prevent companies from outsourcing impacts, the principles would apply not only to data centers they own, but also to capacity they lease or operate that is owned by others. Electricity costs are already rising, even outpacing the rate of inflation over the past year. Utilities have requested record-breaking rate increases and government data predicts costs will continue to rise in the coming years.
The insatiable demand from data centers — which the federal government predicts could as much as triple between 2025 and 2028 — has already been attributed for driving up prices in the power grid that covers parts of 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states. A 2025 Bloomberg News analysis found that power prices have risen in the areas directly around data centers and a separate 2025 paper from the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program found that consumers are shouldering the costs of grid infrastructure that serves data centers.
The White House and industry allies, however, say that data centers are not to blame and that data centers can be a meaningful force to drive down the price of electricity.
A report released last week by the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group representing investor-owned utilities, said that most areas with data centers are not seeing higher costs. Instead, the report said, well-crafted data center tariffs and agreements that put more of the responsibility for new power generation and infrastructure on large tech companies could help reduce costs for consumers.
That, however, requires state utility regulators to craft tariff agreements and power contracts that fully account for tech companies’ costs. Wright singled out two states in particular that have seen the greatest growth in demand for electricity due to data center developments but have not had corresponding increases in electricity prices. That includes North Dakota, which had roughly 35 percent growth in electricity demand over the past five years.
“And their nominal price of electricity has not gone up.The real price of electricity has gone down meaningfully over that five year period,” Wright said.
Picking up the tab
The compact comes just weeks after Microsoft made a similar set of commitments , saying it would pay more for the electricity that serves its data centers, cover any additional infrastructure and reduce water consumption. Microsoft also said it would no longer accept any local tax breaks, a measure not included in the White House draft compact.
Trump touted the Microsoft announcement last month in a Truth Social post, where he indicated that he was working with other tech companies to “ensure that Americans don’t ‘pick up the tab’ for their POWER consumption.”
“You will see more announcements,” Wright said. “You probably saw one from Google in Georgia, freezing electricity prices for three years with their deals. You will hear some deals later this year where large data center developments are announced commensurate with declines in electricity prices.”
Other companies have also said that they already pay their own costs. Meta, for example, has said that it covers all of its energy costs and commissioned a study last year that found that the clean energy projects it has supported add additional generation and do not raise costs for ratepayers.
The draft also pulls data centers more directly into grid reliability planning. Signatories would commit to using noncritical backup generation at new and existing facilities, in coordination with grid operators, to support stability and reliability during emergencies.
Companies would further agree, on a voluntary basis, to allow new data center load to be curtailed when necessary to ensure reliable power for American households, a growing concern for grid operators facing rising peak demand and extreme weather events.
The idea of grid flexibility and backup power has been growing in policy circles. Texas lawmakers last year passed a landmark bill that would require large power users like data centers to reduce power or be disconnected from the grid in emergencies. Other states and grid operators are exploring similar programs.
During last month’s winter storm, Wright also called on grid operators to make backup power from data centers available.
Beyond energy, the compact aims to address local opposition in fast-growing data center regions. Hyperscalers would commit to being “water positive,” developing or procuring sufficient water supplies to support new facilities and ensuring no negative impact on local water availability or quality.
The agreement also calls on companies to establish AI educational awareness programs in surrounding communities and public schools, and to adopt best practices to mitigate noise, traffic and other disruptions affecting nearby residential neighborhoods.
The pact could be meaningful for companies seeking federal help to accelerate grid interconnections, a major bottleneck for AI infrastructure projects. Under the draft, the federal government would commit to supporting accelerated interconnection of new data centers to what’s called the bulk power system that ships high-voltage power across regions.
