Trump Pushes Emergency Grid Auction to Make Tech Giants Pay for Data-Center Power

President Trump and Northeast governors will direct grid operator PJM Interconnection to hold a one-time, 15-year reliability auction that would force data-center operators to fund new power plants to curb rising electricity costs driven by data-center demand; if PJM agrees, the plan could backstop roughly $15 billion in new generation and reshape AI-era data-center power dynamics, with the auction targeted by the end of September and PJM not invited to the rollout.