Overview
- Microsoft pledged to self-finance the electricity required by its data centers so residential customers do not face higher bills, coordinating with local utilities and state commissions.
- The company committed to minimize water consumption, replenish more than it uses, disclose usage transparently, create local jobs, and pay applicable taxes without discounts on land purchases.
- The initiative follows mounting local resistance and oversight, including 142 active opposition groups tracked across 24 U.S. states and Microsoft’s 2025 project cancellation in Caledonia, Wisconsin; President Donald Trump said Microsoft would make changes to avoid bill increases.
- Moody’s estimates at least $3 trillion in AI and data center–related investment in 2026, while the IEA projects global data center electricity consumption near 600 TWh that year.
- BlackRock reports investors are shifting exposure from big tech toward energy and infrastructure providers, and Meta recently set out its own AI infrastructure program.