Trump Says Microsoft To Make Changes To Curb Data Center Power Costs For Americans (cnbc.com) 42
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Monday that Microsoft will announce changes to ensure that Americans won't see rising utility bills as the company builds more data centers to meet rising artificial intelligence demand. "I never want Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Therefore, my Administration is working with major American Technology Companies to secure their commitment to the American People, and we will have much to announce in the coming weeks."
[...] Trump congratulated Microsoft on its efforts to keep prices in check, suggesting that other companies will make similar commitments. "First up is Microsoft, who my team has been working with, and which will make major changes beginning this week to ensure that Americans don't 'pick up the tab' for their POWER consumption, in the form of paying higher Utility bills," Trump wrote on Monday. Utilities charged U.S. consumers 6% more for electricity in August from a year earlier, including in states with many data centers, CNBC reported in November.
Microsoft is paying close to attention to the impact of its data centers on local residents. "I just want you to know we are doing everything we can, and I believe we're succeeding, in managing this issue well, so that you all don't have to pay more for electricity because of our presence," Brad Smith, the company's president and vice chair, said at a September town hall meeting in Wisconsin, where Microsoft is building an AI data center. While Microsoft is moving forward with some facilities, the company withdrew plans for a data center in Caledonia, Wisconsin, amid loud opposition to its efforts there. The project would would have been located 20 miles away from a data center in the village of Mount Pleasant.
[...] Trump congratulated Microsoft on its efforts to keep prices in check, suggesting that other companies will make similar commitments. "First up is Microsoft, who my team has been working with, and which will make major changes beginning this week to ensure that Americans don't 'pick up the tab' for their POWER consumption, in the form of paying higher Utility bills," Trump wrote on Monday. Utilities charged U.S. consumers 6% more for electricity in August from a year earlier, including in states with many data centers, CNBC reported in November.
Microsoft is paying close to attention to the impact of its data centers on local residents. "I just want you to know we are doing everything we can, and I believe we're succeeding, in managing this issue well, so that you all don't have to pay more for electricity because of our presence," Brad Smith, the company's president and vice chair, said at a September town hall meeting in Wisconsin, where Microsoft is building an AI data center. While Microsoft is moving forward with some facilities, the company withdrew plans for a data center in Caledonia, Wisconsin, amid loud opposition to its efforts there. The project would would have been located 20 miles away from a data center in the village of Mount Pleasant.
Get In Here, Trolls (Score:4, Funny)
All right all you political trolls, extremists, zealots, hairy armpitted women. Get in here.
This political honeypot article is your chance to shine. Exhaust yourselves. Blow your loads.
Perhaps we'll be able to make it through the rest of the day's articles without seeing political crap floods.
Re:Get In Here, Trolls (Score:5, Insightful)
Known constant liar said something.
News outlet reported that he said it.
Who cares?
Re: (Score:3)
The news is that we have to trust their promise - the government isn't going to regulate it.
You know, like the promise that the US wasn't going to be involved in any more pointless foreign wars.
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From TFA:
Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
And there you have it. I'll wait for Microsoft to confirm anything Trump said here. Until then, I'll conclude that Trump is just rainmaking.
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Why is this even a story?
Known constant liar said something.
News outlet reported that he said it.
Who cares?
It's Trump being stuck between a rock and a hard place, AI hype is the only think keeping the US economy afloat but it's causing such a spike in prices that even his dumbest supporters are starting to realise.
These kinds of things will be discussed by sociologists, historians and other professionals for decades to come so they are important.
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Perhaps we'll be able to make it through the rest of the day's articles without seeing political crap floods.
You must be new here.
Empty (Score:5, Informative)
So, there is no valid information to back any of this hyperbole and BS up.
Even if they say, "sure we will WORK on it", doesnt mean it will happen in a timeframe to help consumers and citizens. Even if MS makes their platforms more efficient, the whole point of datacenters is to host applications that they dont control. So a promise from MS is as pointless as the Microslop they are giving everyone.
Re:Empty (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if they say, "sure we will WORK on it", doesnt mean it will happen in a timeframe to help consumers and citizens.
A piece of advice I received early in my career that has always stuck with me is that if the follow-up from a meeting, email, whatever is "X to work with Y on Z", the likelihood of "Z" actually happening is very low.
Re:Empty (Score:4, Interesting)
Trump is saying it because if you haven't noticed, opposition to data centers is pretty high right now. And many people have seen the increased power bills because of it, without the data center having even broken ground.
Trump is saying this to try to get one in for Microsoft - after all he helps those who help him. It's a pay for government services thing. Pay for a pardon. Pay for getting laws your way. Pay for promotions.
Microsoft needs a data center and the public are opposed to it. Trump is trying to rally his base by saying "Microsoft is good!".
People building anything are already self-interested in reducing resource usage - the lower the amount of power and water a data center uses, the cheaper it is to run. But right now, opposition to building them is high.
And Microsoft has repeatedly said they don't have a GPU problem, they have a power problem. They have GPUs collecting dust because they can't plug them in.
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Trump is trying to rally his base by saying "Microsoft is good!".
and like the sheep they are at least half of them will go along with it because his base has one principle: whatever trump says
nevermind they spent the past 5 years saying bill gates was part of a secret plot to both murder millions of people with bad vaccines, was a sex trafficker, is buying up farms for nefarious purposes and also is plotting to replace the white race (whatever that means) but trump says hes good now so you know, "baaaaaah"
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Bill Gates stepped down from running Microsoft in 2000. He left his position as chairman of the board at Microsoft in 2014, and left the board entirely in 2020. For the last 5 years, he has been entirely absent from Microsoft and has focused his attention on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Trump's base may enjoy unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, but they have nothing to do with Microsoft.
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If they say, "Yeah we will work on it" then they will be less competitive for exactly the reasons you list, no company is willing to be less competitive
Everything They Can (Score:3)
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After 30 years of these tech companies does anyone really think they give a shit about anything other than money and eliminating competition?
There are always the terminally naive and the Stockholm-Syndrome sufferers. Hence, yes, I expect there are quite a few that think this way.
He can express his thanks by... (Score:2)
Re:He can express his thanks by... (Score:4, Interesting)
Its hallucinations will be embedded across all networks at the Pentagon. Isn't that great?
Let's be honest... (Score:2)
Theoretically, Microslop is in a position to offset datacenter power consumption... Any efficiency gain they could achieve through software on Windows Server could probably be measured in the MW globally.
Of course that would require Microslop to produce, well, not slop.
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Of course that would require Microslop to produce, well, not slop.
I doubt that is in their skill-set. MS was producing slop before LLMs were around.
Commitment for what (Score:2)
All of the would be tax subsidies, brakes and incentives should have to go into a separate pool of money. Used first to offset rising costs for the consumer.
Just a thought; an unrealistic one but it would be nice.
A worthless promise (Score:2)
There's probably a few middle-class, white racists who continue to believe Fox News promising the pain is temporary and T
Re:A worthless promise (Score:5, Insightful)
Simple: Trump is trying to "flood the zone with crap", because the Epstein files are hanging over his head. Greenland, Venezuela, ICE, etc. all part of a plan to "fix" a single problem. A problem that could send him to prison.
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There's no way Trump is going to prison. The ruling class don't do that in America.
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Well, we the people didn't want it to happen since Jack Smith likely had him dead to rights if these actually went to trial.
That blame is shared by both Garland who took far too long to start the probes and us, the people, when faced with electing a criminal or a prosecutor/AG we chose the criminal.
Election conspiracy indictment [justice.gov]
Mar A Lago documents indictment [uscourts.gov]
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A part of his supporters would not. But there are people that care about the rule of law and even (some) Republican supreme court judges do not want to be remembered as supporting something like that. And raping teenagers is very much not covered by "presidential duties", especially if he did it before he became president.
I also think the evangelical fundamentalists would drop him fast when he loses his power. They do not care about Trump, only about what he can give them.
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I also think the evangelical fundamentalists would drop him fast when he loses his power. They do not care about Trump, only about what he can give them.
They are the source of his power so what you are saying is that they will not ever drop supporting him.
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Not quite that simple. If they were his only source of power, then yes. But they are not and they can be overpowered (hehehehe...) by other mechanisms.
"God-Emperor Trump, the Eternal", what an absolute Nightmare! Like Idiocracy in steroids.
This is going to make a fun plot point (Score:4, Interesting)
I live in an area where talking bad about trump could get you hurt and they also hate datacenters. So the next time they say the datacenters are going to raise my rates I'll point out that Trump says that is a lie. Let's watch the mental gymnastics at work!
"Trump Says..." = found the mistake (Score:4, Insightful)
This guy is now doing nothing except trying to misdirect away from the Epstein files.
So...what's the plan? Solar? Wind? (Score:2)
Wut (Score:2)
Sounds good but... I didn't think American Technology Companies have any commitment to the American People, just the shareholders.
Well shit (Score:1)
It's not just the power it's also the water. We have had droughts for the last 20 years. At the moment I think California is out of the drought but that just means they're getting rain water reservoirs are still heavily depleted.
Funny enough I think almonds are going to go away. They require absurd amounts of water and they won't be able to compete with data centers for water.
They have to treat the water they use for the data cente
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At the moment I think California is out of the drought but that just means they're getting rain water reservoirs are still heavily depleted.
(emphasis mine)
This is incorrect. All of California'a major reservoirs are well above their historical average for this date - and frankly the visual looks pretty good right now:
https://farmwater.org/static-c... [farmwater.org]
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Better to focus on the constant lying. Trump takes credit for anything he can that could look good which OTHER PEOPLE DO. He blames others for everything he does that looks bad. There sometimes is no connection to reality involved whatsoever.
He claims gas prices as going down over and over like his memory is going. Sometimes it's written clearly like he forgot; to which the only defense is that he's targeting the ignorant with a specific tone of lying... but more likely his mind has gone.
Of course, pricier power and water! (Score:2)
I'm in water, and these data centers are coming across our desks now; they're looking at millions of gallons of water used per day...the same as a town with tens of thousands of people in it. Except, of course, there are no people.
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Why does a datacentre need to use any water? It's quite possible to use a closed-loop cooling system. If they're using an open-loop system, it means they're getting the water too cheap.
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Remember (Score:2)
Remember, Microsoft is the king of bullshit.