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President Donald Trump will host executives of major tech companies at the White House Wednesday afternoon to sign a pledge ensuring the tech giants protect Americans against higher electricity bills tied to data center power demand.
Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon are expected to sign the Ratepayer Protection Pledge Wednesday afternoon, Fox News Digital learned.
The pledge will have the companies agreeing to “build, bring, or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for data centers,” the White House said.
The Trump administration has promoted the proliferation of artificial intelligence to keep the U.S. as the world’s tech leader, which has included the creation of new data centers and mounting concern energy prices could increase for everyday Americans. The pledge works to combat these concerns and protect Americans against spiking electricity bills.
Chris Wright, U.S. energy secretary and U.S. President Donald Trump listen to reporters in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C . on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The pledge will also have the companies vow against passing expenses to American households.
It also commits companies to hiring and training talent from within communities where they build and operate data centers, which will create thousands of jobs and enhance workforce skills.
“President Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge will deliver more affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the American people and help stop the rising electricity prices that started during the previous administration,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said ahead of the event. “This plan will strengthen American energy dominance, while also ensuring the United States wins the AI race.”
U.S. science and technology official Michael Kratsios addresses attendees at the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Oct. 29, 2025. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Wright added: “We will continue partnering with technology leaders to strengthen America’s competitive edge, while keeping energy costs low for hardworking families.”
Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Trump “continues to ensure the U.S. leads the world in AI while strengthening the grid and driving down energy costs for American families.”
As for the tech companies, Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer of Amazon Web Services, Matt Garman, said Amazon is signing the pledge “to reinforce our commitment to paying our full energy costs and ensuring our data centers do not increase electricity bills for consumers.”
“We welcome the Administration’s leadership on this issue and support the pledge’s commitments, which establish a clear baseline to protect ratepayers while enabling responsible, long-term energy partnerships that strengthen the grid and the communities where data centers operate,” he said.
The Amazon logo seen at Amazon campus in Palo Alto, California on Feb 18, 2020. (Getty Images)
Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith also touted the pledge, calling it an “important step,” with Meta president and vice chair Dina Powell McCormick saying the pledge “ensures families aren’t the ones footing the bill for AI’s energy consumption.”
McCormick said the pledge “gives companies like Meta the certainty we need to keep up the momentum, ensuring that American AI dominance and the prosperity of American families go hand-in-hand.”
And Ruth Porat of Alphabet and Google said the pledge affirms the company’s “long-held commitment to protect energy affordability for American households, accelerate breakthroughs to secure America’s energy future, and deliver energy infrastructure – all of which are critical to maintaining America’s global leadership in this era of innovation.”
Google was never officially put in charge of the content Americans consume, so Republican National Committee Finance Chair Todd Ricketts wants to provide an alternative. (Associated Press)
“Building the infrastructure to advance AI is vital for America’s economic competitiveness and for ensuring the benefits of AI reach everyone,” OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said. “As demand for AI continues to grow, we believe the infrastructure that enables AI should benefit the communities that make it possible, and that’s why we’re proud to support the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge.”
The White House said the pledge will contribute to “lower electricity costs, stronger grid infrastructure, and enhanced grid resilience during emergencies.”
The Microsoft campus in Mountain View, California, US, on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The president announced the Ratepayer Protection Pledge during his State of the Union address in February.
“Tonight, I’m pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new ratepayer protection pledge,” he said. “You know what that is? We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.”
“We have an old grid,” he said. “It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that’s needed. So I’m telling them, they can build their own plant. They’re going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company’s ability to get electricity, while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you.”
Facebook introduces Meta AI to help users turn forgotten photos into shareable collages. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The AI race has pitted the U.S. against China as tech leader, with the Trump administration amplifying efforts to not cede ground to the Asian nation since January 2025. Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania are among states seeing expanded data center campuses and AI growth.
President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, as Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., listen. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)
A White House official previously told Fox Digital that the president and administration have been working on the initiative for a while, including Trump posting about the issue on Truth Social in January.
The pledge comes as affordability concerns continue to be a top issue for voters heading into the midterm election season. Democrat candidates in just a handful of races in the off-year 2025 cycle campaigned on promises of lowering costs for everyday Americans, which proved to be a winning strategy on election night.
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Trump has consistently pushed back on Democrats promoting affordability, pointing to sky-high inflation under the Biden administration as evidence liberal policies have left Americans’ pocketbooks with less cash.
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