US President Donald Trump has instructed major data centers and tech companies to construct their own power generation infrastructure to support their data centers.

During the President's annual State of the Union address, he contended that the measures were required to protect consumers from footing larger bills.

"Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new ratepayer protection pledge. You know what that is? We're telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs," he said.

"We have an old grid. It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that's needed. So I'm telling them, they can build their own plant. They're going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company's ability to get electricity, while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you," the President added.

Despite the announcement, there were no immediate details on which companies would be involved in the pledge or how it would be enforced.

According to reports from Reuters, the government is expected to host several of the largest tech companies sometime in March to formalize the effort.

Since the start of the year, the President has been increasingly vocal concerning the risks of bill increases related to the massive data center build-out happening across the country. Last month, President Trump said that the administration had been in active discussions with data center companies to ensure that households would not pay more for electricity due to the AI buildout, with Microsoft the first to agree to this arrangement.

In response, Microsoft announced a new initiative, named Community-First AI Infrastructure. As part of it, Microsoft will "pay our way to ensure our data centers don’t increase your electricity prices [and] minimize our water use and replenish more of your water than we use," alongside local jobs, taxes, and investments in AI training.

Following this, OpenAI announced a similar initiative in an effort to help prevent rising electricity costs in the regions where it is building its Stargate data center projects.

The announcement by OpenAI closely followed a call from the Trump administration and a bipartisan coalition of governors for Mid-Atlantic-based Regional Transmission Operator (RTO) PJM Interconnection to force data center developers to pay for any new power generation they require, "whether they show up and use the power or not."

The federal push is closely aligned with many US states, where legislation aimed at insulating regular ratepayers from footing the bill for new generation and transmission infrastructure needed to power data centers has been advanced and passed. Kentucky, California, Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin have all seen legislation either proposed or passed to this effect over the past 12 months.