U.S.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (October 21, 2026) that companies building data centres should pay a “dividend” to the communities where they are sited if they want to make the developments popular.
The Trump administration, which has prioritized rapid AI development to compete with China, has also noted the shifting voter sentiment. Mr.
“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,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. “New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data (centres) are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid,” Mr. Trump said in his post. Trump said in February that major technology companies must build their own power plants for their data centres in order to protect consumers from rising bills. The creator of Claude models said over the weekend it is committing 5% of its shares to a new fund for the “public good”, while Mr. Musk pledged on Monday (October 19, 2026) to give one SpaceX share to “every kid in America”, arguing for such direct distributions as the burgeoning sector faces public scrutiny.
