Trump Tells Major Tech Companies to Build Their Own Factories and Supply Their Own Power

Summary

In his State of the Union address, President Trump announced that the administration has informed major technology companies they must build their own power plants to support AI data centers, as the existing grid cannot meet their demands. He emphasized that this measure is intended to protect consumers from rising electricity costs caused by tech sector consumption.

Impact Analysis

So basically, the AI trade just became a heavy industrial energy trade. Trump telling Big Tech to ‘build your own power’ isn’t just a regulatory hurdle—it’s a massive barrier to entry that actually favors the Hyperscalers.

Everyone’s worrying about the near-term CapEx hit, but think about the structural shift: if you need a private power plant to run a data center, the mid-tier AI competitors are dead on arrival. Only the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have the balance sheets to become utility companies overnight. The explicit reasoning—protecting consumer electricity rates —gives this policy populist teeth, making it politically impossible for Tech to fight back.

The real trade here isn’t dumping tech; it’s buying the hardware providers for this private grid buildout. Look at gas turbine manufacturers, SMR (small modular reactor) developers, and heavy engineering firms. The public grid is tapped out , and Tech is being forced to privatize its energy supply. This decouples AI growth from public utility constraints, which is bullish for long-term execution but brutal for near-term capital efficiency.