Microsoft scrambles to quell fury around its new AI data centers
Orange Cat
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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.
The issue has influenced local elections, with some communities even pushing developers to cancel or delay projects
Tech companies have faced a surge of opposition against data center projects meant to satiate the needs of energy-hungry AI products. The issue has influenced local elections, with some communities even pushing developers to cancel or delay projects.
“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.
