Trump says data centre firms should pay a 'dividend' to local communities

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that companies building data centres should pay a “dividend” to the communities where they are located if they want the projects to be popular, The Express Tribune reported, citing Reuters.

“I have watched the process closely, and data centres that were highly unpopular in a certain area have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

A political flashpoint

Data centres powering the rise of artificial intelligence have become a political flashpoint in communities across the US because of the large amounts of water and electricity they use. Opposition to them has united voters across the political divide.

The Trump administration, which has made fast AI development a priority in its competition with China, has also taken note of the shift in public mood.

“Make their own electricity”

Trump repeated his demand that the biggest new projects supply their own power.

“New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data (centers) are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid,” he wrote.

In February, Trump said big technology companies must build their own power plants for their data centres to protect consumers from rising electricity bills.

Sharing the spoils

The president’s comments come as AI companies and their backers look for ways to share some of the gains of the AI boom with the public:

• Anthropic, the maker of the Claude models, said over the weekend that it is committing 5% of its shares to a new fund for the “public good”. It has said its Public Benefit Fund will receive 5% of its shares as it prepares for a possible stock market listing. The BBC reported that the fund could receive a further 2% at the board’s discretion, and that the company is preparing a possible stock market listing that could value it at more than $1 trillion. Anthropic told prospective investors its revenue rose 45% to $16.8 billion in the three months to the end of September.
• Elon Musk pledged on Monday to give one SpaceX share to “every kid in America”, arguing for direct distributions of this kind as the sector faces growing public scrutiny.

Musk had earlier responded to Anthropic’s announcement by saying shares should be given “directly to the public”, which he said he would do. His SpaceX pledge followed on Monday.

The two plans take different routes. Anthropic’s fund will make donations for causes it judges to be in the public interest, while Musk’s offer would put shares straight into the hands of individual children. Trump’s dividend idea is narrower again, aimed at the towns and counties that host the buildings.

Few details

Trump did not say how a “dividend” would work, how much companies should pay, or whether it would be voluntary. A dividend would go further than his earlier demand that firms cover their own energy needs, by passing a direct benefit to people who live near the sites.

For now, Trump’s post is a statement of preference rather than policy. The White House has not announced any rules requiring companies to pay communities.