President Trump announces data center electricity deals in State of the Union
President Donald Trump said during Tuesday’s State of the Union address that he’s struck agreements with tech companies to pay more for electricity in areas where they build data centers.
The “rate payer protection pledges” are intended to insulate consumers from higher bills in regions where new, power-hungry data centers are built. The White House earlier told Politico that the plan meant that tech giants would “pay their own way” and offset their demand for power causing electricity bills for all ratepayers to increase.
Some tech companies are already trying to get out in front of the public’s negative perception of their surging electricity use, and Trump’s criticism of it. In January, Microsoft committed to paying up for its data center electricity use. That move came after criticism from the president. As part of the plan, Microsoft said it would ask utilities and public commissions to charge it rates high enough to cover the costs of both data center installation and usage, and support two-tier pricing systems where “Very Large Customers” (like data centers) get charged higher prices.
Coming into the end of 2025, utilities with a footprint on the country’s largest utility grid — the PJM Interconnection, which serves vast swaths of the Eastern Seaboard and Great Lakes region — like Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra saw their share prices surge as electricity auction prices hit record highs. So far in 2026, however, that trade has largely reversed.
Some tech companies are already trying to get out in front of the public’s negative perception of their surging electricity use, and Trump’s criticism of it. In January, Microsoft committed to paying up for its data center electricity use. That move came after criticism from the president. As part of the plan, Microsoft said it would ask utilities and public commissions to charge it rates high enough to cover the costs of both data center installation and usage, and support two-tier pricing systems where “Very Large Customers” (like data centers) get charged higher prices.
Coming into the end of 2025, utilities with a footprint on the country’s largest utility grid — the PJM Interconnection, which serves vast swaths of the Eastern Seaboard and Great Lakes region — like Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra saw their share prices surge as electricity auction prices hit record highs. So far in 2026, however, that trade has largely reversed.
