Trump says companies should pay 'dividend' to communities to make data centers popular

US President ​Donald Trump said on Wednesday that ‌companies ​building data centers should pay a "dividend" to the communities where they are sited if they want to make the ‌developments popular.

"I have watched the process closely, and data centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck," Trump ‌said in a Truth Social post. Data centers fueling the rise of AI have become ‌a political flashpoint in communities across the country given the high quantities of water and power they require, with opposition uniting voters across ideological lines.

The Trump administration, which has prioritized rapid AI development to compete ⁠with China, ​has also noted ⁠the shifting voter sentiment. "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," ​Trump said in his post.

Trump said in February that major technology companies must build ⁠their own power plants for their data centers in order to protect consumers from rising bills. AI giant Anthropic ⁠and ​Elon Musk have laid out blueprints in recent days for sharing some of the spoils of the AI boom.

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 Musk pledged ⁠on Monday to give one SpaceX share to "every kid in America", arguing for such direct distributions as the burgeoning sector faces public ‌scrutiny.