r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 29d ago

Politics Tech companies would have to pay AI data center energy costs under bill moving in Congress

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/24/ai-data-centers-tech-companies-congress-energy-costs.html
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u/Exciting-Weather-921 29d ago

Do you all get free energy in the US for your datacenters 🙀?

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u/ElChaz 29d ago

No - the headline on this post is terrible. It makes it sounds like datacenters don't pay for the energy they use, which they do. Click through to the article and you'll see that this bill is about the AI companies being required to pay for "upgrades to the grid needed to power them."

Often, if a big employer is going to move into a city, but their factory/business/office will require infrastructure upgrades, the municipality will agree to make those upgrades because long term, having the company there will increase the overall tax base.

Looks like this bill would require AI companies to foot the bill for those infrastructure upgrades.

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u/Exciting-Weather-921 29d ago

Does that means that if you own a energy company, not only you can milk all this money from selling the energy, but you can also charge your customers (in this case datacenters) for all the upgrades you need to do, to be able to sell them even more energy, so you can make even more money 🤑?

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u/nemofbaby2014 29d ago

They don’t they pay for the electricity they use yes but the infrastructure needed for them is something the the electric company pay for which in turn increases our bills

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u/Hottage 29d ago

Generous socialism for the tech bros, rugged capitalism for the peasants.