Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has warned that private equity firms are positioning themselves to profit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom by acquiring utility companies and passing the costs of grid upgrades needed to support data centers onto consumers through higher electricity bills.
“Private equity is trying to buy up the utility companies that will be responsible for making those (grid) upgrades. Why? Because they want to own the utilities so they can push the cost of upgrading the grid for those data centers onto you, the consumer,” Warren said in a post on X Thursday.
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AI Data Centers Are Driving A Surge In Power Demand
Warren said a growing share of the country’s rising electricity consumption is being driven by data centers, which require massive amounts of power to train and operate advanced models.
