microsoft On Tuesday, consumers promised they would not pay extra if software makers set up data centers near their areas.
The company also promised to refill more water than it uses and add local tax standards where its data centers are located.
“Our commitment to each of these communities is that as a company, we will pay to ensure that our data centers do not drive up your electricity bills,” Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith said at an event in Great Falls, Virginia, less than 32 miles from the White House.
Smith said the company has pre-arranged contracts with power companies so it can afford to invest in infrastructure that can support new data centers.
Smith made a similar statement in September in Racine, Wisconsin, near a corporate data center scheduled to open in early 2026.
“By working with the utility companies on plans to add the necessary power supply, some will pay high utility bills high enough to cover their electricity bills,” Smith said.
The move comes as utility costs are rising across the U.S. and technology companies are racing to build data centers that can run generative artificial intelligence models like the ones that power OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT assistant.
CNBC reported in November that power companies, including in states with many data centers, increased electricity bills for U.S. consumers by 6% from a year earlier in August.
These facilities typically contain specialized processors that require large amounts of energy to operate.
In Caledonia, Wisconsin, where Microsoft considered building a data center last year, residents complained about issues such as water and power usage.
The company decided not to proceed with construction on the site it had been considering in the village, citing local opinions.
Smith said local Wisconsin power company We Energies is offering special electricity rates for its large customers’ data centers, and Microsoft is asking the state Public Service Commission to increase the rates it pays.
“We’re not going to go into communities and ask them to create local property tax abatements or abatements in order to attract a data center from Microsoft,” Smith said Tuesday.
On Monday, hours before the Microsoft event, President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his administration was working with the company and would be making “major changes starting this week to ensure Americans don’t ‘pick and choose’ their electricity consumption.”
Smith told CNBC’s Eamonn Javers that the company has had a healthy dialogue with the White House since President Trump took office last year.
“We’re really relying on their leadership at the federal level, particularly Chris Wright and the Department of Energy, Doug Burgum and the Department of the Interior, and across the government,” Smith said on CNBC. Mr. Burgum, secretary of the Interior and former governor of North Dakota, spent six years on the board of Microsoft, where he served as CEO after the technology company acquired Great Plains Software in 2001.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts in October that the company plans to nearly double its data center footprint over the next two years.
Microsoft has been building data centers for over 15 years. The company spent nearly $35 billion on cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure capital expenditures and finance leases in the September quarter, an increase of 75% from a year ago.
“Our goal is to move quickly and partner with local communities to bring these efforts to fruition in the first half of this year,” Smith said in a blog post.
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