--- title: "Trump Says AI Is So Important He’ll Build New Power Plants Attached to Datacenters" description: "During a big meeting of billionaires, President Donald Trump said he plans to use his office to literally provide power to AI datacenters." date: "2025-01-24" modified: "2025-01-24" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-ai-datacenter-plants" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "datacenters" - "donald trump" - "infrastructure" - "the digest" --- # Trump Says AI Is So Important He’ll Build New Power Plants Attached to Datacenters ![During a big meeting of billionaires, President Donald Trump said he plans to use his office to literally provide power to AI datacenters.]() *\Image: Greg Nash / Pool via Getty / Futurism\* ## Big Brain During a consortium of global billionaires and power players, President Donald Trump said AI is so important that he plans to attach literal powerplants to AI datacenters. "We’re going to make it so that the plants will have their own electric generating facilities attached right to their plant," Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, [per *The Hill*](). "They don’t have to worry about a utility." As they stand today, [AI datacenters use massive amounts of energy]() from existing electrical grids. That insatiable hunger is already starting to [hamstring the energy sector](), which seems to be why Trump wants to cut out the middleman and give these datacenters their own power sources. He apparently plans to make this happen via his [emergency energy declaration](), which was issued immediately after his inauguration. Many [consider it]() a thank-you gift to the fossil fuel industry for its [financial support during his reelection campaign](); with its "[drill, baby, drill]()" ethos, this unprecedented bill is part of Trump's broader effort to "[unleash]()" traditional — read: nonrenewable — energy companies from the binds of regulation. During his speech at Davos, an [AI-enthused Trump]() seemed bullish on the prospect of new energy projects for the technology's infrastructure and suggested he'd get them done by any means necessary. "We’re going to build electric generating facilities, they are going to build. I’m going to get them the approval," the president said. "Under emergency declaration, I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting." ## Back It Up While that kind of big Trump talk often comes without either intellectual or logistical backup, in the case of AI infrastructure he finds himself aligned with powerful interests — and the reality, whatever you think of AI, that the US power grid is woefully dated. "The big problem is we need double the energy we currently have in the United States — can you imagine? — for AI to really be as big as we want to have it," the real estate mogul outlined. "So, I’m going to give emergency declarations so that they can start building them almost immediately." Perhaps most chillingly, Trump also said that the companies looking to get in on this AI energy boom can have "anything they want, and they may have coal as a backup." Naturally, there were zero mentions of how harmful such massive energy usage [is and will be for the environment](), or how he plans to pay for such sweeping energy projects, which may well not be part of his [$500 billion AI investment package](). Figuring out the latter will be the job of the people he's once again employing on the taxpayer dime — and god help whoever tells him what the bill is gonna be. **More on Trump and AI:** [*Elon Musk Blasts Donald Trump's Huge AI Infrastructure Deal*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()