Americans’ electricity bills are up. Don’t blame AI

GateUser-9ad11037 · 2026-03-12T07:12:18+00:00

Americans are outraged by rising power bills, blaming tech firms that fuel AI data centers. Ashburn, Virginia, hosts numerous centers consuming vast electricity, comparable to Philadelphia. Donald Trump recently urged tech leaders to secure their power supplies to mitigate costs.

GateUser-9ad11037

2026-03-12 07:12:18

Abstract generation in progress

POWER BILLS are going up in America and the people are angry. They know whom to blame—the bosses of technology firms thirsting for more juice to fuel artificial-intelligence data centres. Ashburn, a town of 45,000 in a featureless part of Virginia that has earned the nickname “Data Centre Alley”, has some 150 of these. They consume roughly as much electricity as Philadelphia, a city of 1.6m. On March 4th Donald Trump convened tech leaders to sign a pledge to “build, bring or buy their own power supply…ensuring that Americans’ electricity bills will not increase”.

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