Big tech, AI data centers driving US power bills to record high

The booming growth of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing is colliding heavily with the United Nation’s electricity infrastructure, causing utility bills to surge for both everyday consumers and local businesses.

This comes as big tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are locked in a fierce race to build "hyperscale" data centers across America.

As the U.S. power grid cannot instantly produce new energy to match this sudden spike, demand is heavily outpacing supply, driving wholesale electricity costs to historic highs.

For years, electricity costs for the Belden Brick Company in Sugarcreek, Ohio, had been relatively stable.

However, last year, they surged by 90%, largely because of rising power demand from data centers in the region.

Pioneer manufacturers estimate that tower bills rise mainly from a monthly capacity charge, which recently jumped from $1,600 a month to $12,000 as power-hungry data centers serving the AI industry ‌proliferate.

According to a Reuters review of U.S. energy data, manufacturers and industry advocates, factory electricity bills, a core expense, are rising faster than for many homes and other businesses.

Meanwhile, federal, state and local governments responding to consumer complaints and grid-stability concerns, are pushing big tech companies to pay more for their expected demand.

As per advocates and policy experts, the rising costs and regulatory uncertainty threaten some factories’ viability at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is prioritizing domestic manufacturing.

These businesses are considering raising prices, slowing growth, or in some cases relocating.

Data-center growth is “making us finally grapple with the difficult decisions that we were always going to have to face,” said Aaron Tinjum, vice president of energy for Data Center Coalition, a trade group.

Moreover, average industrial electricity prices were up 31% in Pennsylvania and 26% in Ohio as of December 2025 from 12 months earlier, compared with a 7% rise nationwide for industrial users.

Residential customers in those two states saw increases of 14% and 9%, respectively.

Even a 1% or 2% power-cost increase can stretch factory owners, who often operate on thin margins and use lots of electricity, economists and industry officials say.

President of the trade group Industrial Energy Consumers of America, Paul Cicio said, "This can have short-and long-term impacts on whether or not these facilities can continue to operate.”