Nearly 200 US utility companies and data centre developers have signed President Donald Trump's "rate payer protection pledge", a voluntary commitment aimed at preventing consumers from bearing the cost of AI's soaring electricity demand. The move follows growing public and bipartisan backlash over fears that the AI boom will drive up household energy bills, with some data centre projects already downsized or blocked as a result of the pressure.

Trump is expected to announce the new signatories, including NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Equinix and Digital Realty, on Thursday; a White House official said those who have signed now represent about 80% of all power delivered to US homes and businesses. The pledge, first introduced in March and originally signed by tech firms including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon and xAI, contains vague commitments for AI companies to cover new infrastructure costs. However, it carries no penalties for non-compliance and lacks real enforcement power, since electricity prices are typically set by state regulators rather than the federal government — and the grid operator PJM is still expected to add $6.3 billion in extra costs across 13 states due to data centre demand.