Trump announced on Truth Social a mandate that would force AI data centers to pay 'energy dividends' to local communities.

President Donald Trump has called on data center builders and AI hyperscalers to pay communities a dividend to offset energy-related price increases, or even to reduce prices, in order to make data centers more acceptable to local residents. In a post on Truth Social, he warned that data centers would be required not only to generate their own electricity, as he has previously stated, but also to give or sell excess energy back to the local community.

Communities across the United States have protested against AI data centers, often because of their outsized impact on local areas. Rising electricity costs, noise pollution, water shortages, air pollution, deforestation, and other effects are burdens that small communities must bear because of these companies.

To ease those burdens, Trump is demanding that large companies provide the communities they affect with something that may make their presence more acceptable. The administration is keen to stay ahead of China in the AI arms race and is seeking ways to win back public favor by having data centers pay something back to affected communities. How that would work in practice remains unclear. Given the post's focus on electricity, the dividend could take the form of partially covering rising electricity costs, easing a pain point that directly affects many homes near data centers. The administration has already ordered these companies to generate their own electricity, as previously reported. Excess power from that generation could be used to further lower electricity costs for local residents, including under a recently passed act that requires data centers to shoulder the cost of grid upgrades so that it is not taken from local taxpayers.

"Data Centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck," Trump said in the post, adding with the aim of having more data centers built, "MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!!"

It is unclear whether dividends will be enough to win over communities, since economic concerns are only one facet of the problem. Enormous water consumption, ecological damage, and pollution remain major challenges that make AI data centers a difficult sell wherever they are located.