American tech giants pledge to bear their own AI energy costs to prevent residents' electricity bills from rising

Mars Finance reports that on March 5th, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed a non-binding “User Protection Commitment” on Wednesday local time, pledging to “build, introduce, or purchase” the energy needed for data center construction and operation, ensuring that related costs are not passed on to ordinary consumers to prevent rising electricity bills for U.S. residents. It is currently unclear how the White House will ensure that companies fulfill their commitments. Trump stated that the public is concerned that data center construction could drive up electricity prices, but he promised this will not happen. The electricity demand from AI data centers in some parts of the U.S. has already exceeded existing supply capacity, and it is estimated that by 2028, data center electricity consumption could account for 12% of the total U.S. electricity usage. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential electricity prices are expected to rise by 6% in 2025 and continue to increase through 2027 and 2028.