President Donald Trump has a pitch for the towns and cities that end up hosting America's AI buildout: you might get a check. Or at least your teachers might.
Speaking to reporters alongside tech CEOs on Tuesday, Trump said communities hosting data centers would get a "dividend," and he was happy to sketch out what that could look like. Teacher bonuses, direct payments to residents, that sort of thing. The idea being that the massive financial footprint of these facilities should flow back to the people living near them.
"You could call it a dividend because a dividend sounds right, they are going to greatly benefit by what's happened," Trump said, adding that "now people are going to benefit directly."
Trump also pushed back on the criticism data centers have attracted, describing it as a "false narrative" largely promoted by Democrats that the facilities are harmful.
Trump Likens Data Centers to Oil
This isn't a brand new tune for Trump. He has previously argued that data centers could eventually outstrip the oil industry in economic significance. Back in August, he called data centers "tremendously important" for the economy and went after opponents of their development.
The backdrop here is real: data centers have stirred up community worries about surging electricity demand. Trump's counterargument is that, built in the right places, they can actually be a net positive for local areas, bringing jobs, revenue and lower taxes.
His key point is that new data centers are being required to generate their own power rather than draw from the existing grid, a setup he says could eventually help bring down electricity costs.
Trump's remarks came as the White House expanded its AI data center Ratepayer Protection Pledge to nearly 200 more participants, requiring developers to cover power infrastructure costs.
Tech Giants Sign White House AI Pact
On Tuesday, Trump unveiled a newly inked voluntary AI safety pact after hosting top technology executives at the White House. The White House Accord on Super Intelligence calls for independent audits, stronger internal controls, and board-level oversight of advanced AI systems.
Trump called the pact "morally binding" and said AI companies should be responsible for policing their own development.
The agreement was signed by the President and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: SPCX) xAI CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by MarketDash editors.
