Trump Tells Tech Billionaires He Will Work To Get Them Permits for Data Centers—Amid Fears Over Costly Impact on Homeowners

President Donald Trump has promised tech leaders that he will help them procure enough electricity to power massive data centers needed to develop artificial intelligence, despite what could be costly impacts on homeowners.

"I know everybody at the table indirectly through reading about you and studying, knowing a lot about your business, actually making it very easy for you in terms of electric capacity and getting it for you, getting your permits,” he told them at Thursday night's White House dinner, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The administration has been working to remove roadblocks to connecting data centers to the U.S. power grid, though challenges exist at the state level, says the Journal.

The promise comes amid what has been termed Trump's "all-out assault" on wind energy, and the president's commitment to the fossil fuel industry.

The dinner with tech titans followed the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education roundtable, hosted by first lady Melania Trump, earlier in the day.

Although the dinner was meant to be held in the newly cemented Rose Garden, rain pushed the event inside, according to the Journal.

Trump was surrounded by tech titans at the dinner, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (seated to the president's right) and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (seated next to Melania, on Trump's left). Also at the table were Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and IBM CEO and Chairman Arvind Krishna.

Notably absent was Trump's former DOGE czar, Elon Musk. Musk, at the time of the inauguration, was a very outspoken supporter of Trump and his administration. However, their relationship soured dramatically in June, when the Tesla founder slammed the president's "big, beautiful bill" as a "disgusting abomination."

Also not in attendance was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Sources told the Journal that Huang prefers one-on-one scenarios.

What this means for homeowners

The promise to get the tech giants on the grid comes with concerns that homeowners could be footing part of the bill in the form of higher monthly utility charges.

"Utility prices are rising across the board, partly due to higher energy demand from data centers and partly from extreme weather, growing electrification, and the need to upgrade aging infrastructure," David Conn, vice president and head of business and development at utility software company Exceleron, tells Realtor.com®.

AI requires massive amounts of electricity, much of it coming from massive data centers springing up across the U.S. that require continuous, high-capacity power.

AI could be part of the reason that electric bills have already jumped in one year, with the average U.S. residential electricity prices increasing 6.5%, from 16.41 cents per kilowatt-hour to 17.47 cents, between May 2024 and May 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

As demand for AI rises, utilities in some states are already asking regulators to approve residential rate increases to fund grid upgrades and AI-driven expansion.

"As utilities race to meet AI-driven energy demand, infrastructure costs are rising and those costs are passed [on] to everyday ratepayers," Aaron Wright, CEO of Solomon Group and Solomon e3, a climate tech company focused on equitable energy solutions for underserved communities, tells Realtor.com.

Additionally, the demand for AI could push up home prices.

The boom is fueling a frenzy of data centers, which are competing with residential homes for capital, power, water, and even sonic space.

The result is a housing market stuck in neutral, with the potential for higher bills on the horizon, and neighborhoods kept awake by the hum of chillers designed to keep machines—not people—cool.

Homebuyers are seeing the impact in higher mortgage rates, as data center buildouts keep swallowing trillions in capital.

Sellers are taking an equal hit, as they get trapped by the mortgage “lock-in” effect. And having a tech giant neighbor is less a blessing than a burden: Strained water supplies and sleepless nights filled with industrial hums can chip away at property values and peace of mind. 

The data boom could start driving out residents

Some residents may already be losing their homes to the data boom.

In July, those living in Valley View Estates mobile park in Archbald, PA, got news that would change everything: The owner of their community had entered into a binding sales agreement the prior month, and by April 2026, the land under their homes would have new ownership.

The new owners are linked to Project Gravity, a planned data center development that will span at least six buildings and 1.62 million square feet across the campus.

The new owners take over in April 2026, and residents are understandably worried about being displaced.

"Everybody in this trailer park is on a fixed income. Some are handicapped. My daughter has special needs, and there’s little kids in the trailer park,” resident Tina Goble told the Times-Tribune.

The high demand of data centers

"Clean energy is in an arms race with AI, and the U.S. is entering a period where power generation can’t keep pace with demand," Zoe Gamble, CEO of CleanChoice Energy, tells Realtor.com.

"When we have more demand than generation, the grid starts failing. As more data centers are built to accommodate AI and other data-intensive processes, our grids are being pushed to their breaking point."

In Texas, a state with abundant and still fairly affordable land (and plenty of water), the data center boom will likely drive up property demand and increase home prices in certain key areas, say experts.

"The problem with these centers is they require a tremendous amount of power," veteran Whittier, CA-based real estate investor Jameson Tyler Drew tells Realtor.com. He owns 155 acres of desert land on the border of Mexico and California.

"Places like Texas were great for data centers as they ticked all the boxes data centers need to operate, or at least they did. Until recently, Texas was the largest state for renewable energy projects like solar and wind farms.

"However, with the passage of the latest legislation, federal subsidies for these projects were eliminated. Combined with hefty tariffs on solar panel-producing companies from China, and suddenly Texas isn't that appealing."

He also predicts that the high costs will force tech companies overseas despite Trump's promises to bring jobs back to America.

Trump's anti-wind stance

"Right now, solar, wind, and battery projects make up roughly 90% of all new generation in the U.S. interconnection queue," says Gamble. "Many are already permitted, engineered, and ready to go. The reality is, renewables are the fastest, most cost-effective path forward."

However, Trump's promise to the tech giants comes just when his administration is shutting down the possibility of offshore wind energy to at least two states.

On Thursday, Rhode Island and Connecticut filed a complaint in U.S. District Court after a stop-work order was issued to developer Revolution Wind, a joint venture between Ørsted, a Danish energy company, and a consortium led by Skyborn Renewables, a Global Infrastructure Partners platform company.

The offshore wind farm was 80% completed and set to power more than 350,000 homes starting in 2026.

Work was halted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Aug. 22, citing national security concerns. Revolution Wind filed a separate lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha accused Trump of waging an "all-out assault" on the wind energy industry, according to the Associated Press.

Trump hasn't been subtle in his disdain for alternative energy, recently calling wind and solar power "THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!" on Truth Social.

The Trump administration's secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long opposed wind farms, ever since one was proposed within view of the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod, MA, two decades ago.