Microsoft announces glut of new data centers but says it won’t let your electricity bill rise

Although public reaction The data center fight has been intense over the past 12 months, with all of the tech industry’s biggest companies promising to further develop their AI infrastructure in the coming year. This includes OpenAI partner Microsoft, which on Tuesday announcement what he calls a “community first” approach to AI infrastructure.

Microsoft’s announcement, which comes just one day after Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta would launch its own AI infrastructure program, this is not surprising. Last year, the company announced plans to spend billions to expand its AI capacity. What’s a little unusual are the promises the company has made about how it will handle this construction.

On Tuesday, Microsoft promised to take “the necessary steps to be a good neighbor in the communities where we build, own and operate our data centers.” This includes, according to the company, its intention to “pay for itself” to ensure that local electricity bills don’t explode in the places where it builds. Specifically, the company says it will work with local utility companies to ensure the rates it pays cover its entire load on the local grid.

“We will work closely with the utility companies that set electricity prices and the state commissions that approve those prices,” Microsoft said. “Our goal is simple: to ensure that the cost of electricity needed to power our data centers is not passed on to residential customers. »

The company is also committed to creating jobs in the communities where it lands, as well as minimizing the amount of water its centers need to operate. Water consumption by data centers is obviously a controversial topic, data centers accused to create substantial problems for the local water supply and to stimulate other environmental concerns. The promise of employment is also relevant, given the questions around the number of short-term and permanent jobs that such projects typically create.

It’s pretty clear why Microsoft feels it’s necessary to make these promises right now. Data center construction has become a political flashpoint in recent years, generating intense backlash and protests from local communities. Data Center Watch, an organization that tracks anti-data center activism, has observed that there are currently as many as 142 different activist groups in 24 states organizing against such developments.

This negative reaction has already had a direct impact on Microsoft. In October, the company abandoned plans for a new data center in Caledonia, Wisconsin, after “community feedback” was overwhelmingly negative. In Michigan, the company plans to carry out a similar project in a small township in the center recently inspired locals take to the streets to protest. On Tuesday, around the same time that Microsoft announced its “good neighbor” commitment, and opinion article in a newspaper in Ohio (where Microsoft is currently development several data center campuses) have criticized the company, blaming it and its peers for climate change.

Concerns have extended even to the White House, where the development of AI has become one of the major tenets of the Trump administration. On Monday, President Trump took to social media to promise that Microsoft would specifically “major changes» to ensure that Americans’ electricity bills will not increase. Trump said the changes would “ensure that Americans don’t ‘foot the bill’ for their energy use.”

In short, Microsoft now understands that it is battling a wave of negative public opinion. It remains to be seen whether the company’s new assurances of jobs, environmental management and low electricity bills will be enough to reverse the trend.