Anthropic said it will cover the electricity price increases to consumers from its data centers. In a post, Anthropic said "AI companies shouldn't leave American ratepayers to pick up the tab."

It's a nice thought, but paying for grid upgrades, bringing net new power generation, reducing strain on the grid and investing in local communities seems like a roundabout way to lower my bill that’s already gone up.

Zoom out: Anthropic's missive follows a similar post from Microsoft. These efforts from AI giants are designed to head off NIMBY as communities realize that having a massive AI data center in your back yard may not be so swell.  NIMBY was a key acronym in my 2026 predictions.