Microsoft scrambles to quell fury around its new AI data centers

It looks like the wave of campaigns against data centers are getting under big tech companies’ skin — and Microsoft is the latest giant to promise to address frustrations on the ground in communities around their data centers.

The company announced a five-point plan today that it calls “Community-First AI Infrastructure.” That includes paying more to try to prevent data center energy demands from raising other customers’ electricity bills, minimizing the company’s water use, training workers and creating jobs, and contributing to the local tax base in locations it operates.

“We are at a moment in time when we need to listen and we need to address these concerns head on,” Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said in a livestream today.

Rising electricity rates across the US have become one of the biggest flashpoints, a trend that’s driven in part by increasing power demand from data centers, manufacturing, and the electrification of homes, buildings, and transportation. Household electricity bills rose 13 percent nationally in 2025, according to a December report from advocacy group Climate Power. And data center power demand is expected to double or triple to consume up to 12 percent of electricity in the US by 2028, according to the Department of Energy.

Microsoft claims it’ll “ask utilities and public commissions to set our rates high enough to cover the electricity costs for our datacenters,” including costs associated with building new infrastructure to meet growing demand. Smith says the company would not accept electricity subsidies in interviews with The Seattle Times and GeekWire.

The company is also promising more transparency around where it plans to build data centers and how much energy it’s using. Data center developers and tech companies have caught flak from local residents for striking deals with utilities behind closed doors and asking local officials to sign NDAs that limit how much information the public can access. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other Democratic lawmakers sent Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and major data center developers a letter in December demanding that the companies answer questions about their power use and local lobbying efforts.

Microsoft’s not the only major tech company seemingly in a defensive position. Meta similarly reiterated a pledge in December to restore water sources in places where it has data centers. Amazon commissioned a study late last year that says the company’s data centers generate more in revenue for utilities than it costs for utilities to serve those facilities.

At least 25 projects across the US have been canceled following local backlash, according to a Heatmap Pro analysis published yesterday. “The truth is, infrastructure buildouts progress only when communities conclude that the benefits outweigh the cost,” Smith said.

President Donald Trump, who promised to fast-track data center development with his AI Action Plan last year, has also jumped on the bandwagon to address growing rage over soaring electricity bills. In a Truth Social post yesterday, he says his team has been “working with” Microsoft and other tech companies to make sure Americans don’t “pick up the tab” for data center power consumption.