Donald Trump says he wants America to lead the world in artificial intelligence. He’s embraced Silicon Valley’s biggest players, promised an innovation boom and painted AI as a pillar of U.S. strength.
But here’s the problem: Leadership in AI isn’t just about algorithms and chips. It’s about power — literal, electric power. And on that front, Trump’s policies don’t match his rhetoric.
The reality is simple. AI runs on electricity. Massive data centers humming 24/7 already account for nearly 5% of America’s power demand. Within five years, that number could double. Analysts at the International Energy Agency estimate that by 2030, global electricity demand from data centers will rival the entire consumption of Japan. America alone is projected to drive almost half of that growth.
To meet that surge, we’ll need new sources of energy that are cheap, scalable and built quickly. That means wind, solar and storage. Not someday, not theoretically — right now. But Trump has spent much of his presidency pulling the rug out from under America’s clean energy future.
A contradiction at the heart of Trump’s agenda?
On the one hand, Trump is talking up AI as America’s next moonshot. On the other, his administration has gutted clean energy incentives, slowed or blocked projects and tilted policy back toward fossil fuels. Just this week, the president devoted a significant portion of his hourlong diatribe at the United Nations to railing against renewable energy, calling it — along with immigration— a “double-tailed monster” responsible for the alleged (and imaginary) downfall of Europe.
But even if Trump’s latest antics were more about performance, the consequences of his administration’s policies will be felt by Americans for years to come. BloombergNEF projects that wind and solar growth through 2030 will fall nearly a quarter short of earlier forecasts under current rules. Onshore wind alone is projected to drop by 50%. Meanwhile, nearly $19 billion in renewable projects have already been scrapped in just the past year.
That’s not just bad for the planet. It’s bad for your power bill.
When clean energy stalls, demand doesn’t — especially in today’s AI-accelerated landscape. Data centers keep going up. AI models keep getting trained. And users keep finding more and more ways to integrate this world-altering technology into their everyday lives. The result is ever-increasing competition for the same limited supply of electricity — and consumers are the ones left footing the bill.
In PJM, the country’s largest grid operator covering 13 states and Washington, D.C., the cost of future electricity jumped 22% in the most recent capacity auction. Nationwide, residential rates climbed about 7% in the past year, with businesses not far behind. And in states where new data centers are booming, the costs of building grid upgrades are often baked into utility rates — meaning everyday families are the ones subsidizing the infrastructure that’s fueling the rapid growth of the tech giants competing amongst themselves for AI supremacy.
Some will argue that Trump doesn’t need clean energy to meet this challenge — that unleashing oil, gas and coal, freed from what they see as heavy-handed Democratic regulations, will provide all the electricity America needs. There’s no question fossil fuels still play an important role in our energy mix, and easing permitting for traditional generation might bring some short-term relief. But building new gas plants or reviving coal simply isn’t fast enough, cheap enough or clean enough to keep pace with AI’s exponential demand.
Natural gas remains vulnerable to global price shocks, and coal plants are aging out of viability while facing steep costs to meet pollution standards. More importantly, these sources lock us into higher emissions at a time when investors and consumers alike are pressing AI companies to prove they run on cleaner power. By contrast, wind and solar are now the lowest-cost sources of new electricity in much of the country, and they can be deployed at the scale and speed this AI moment demands.
China is playing the long game
Here’s where the contradiction turns dangerous. While the U.S. ties one hand behind its back, China is building out clean energy at breakneck speed. In 2024, it installed more solar capacity than the rest of the world combined. Its wind sector is expanding just as rapidly, with gigawatts of new turbines coming online each quarter. Today, roughly a quarter of China’s electricity comes from renewables, and the number is climbing. That’s not an accident — it’s the result of deliberate state-led investment and a recognition that, in the 21st century, clean energy isn’t just an environmental priority. It’s a strategic imperative.
For China, this is about more than cutting emissions. It’s about controlling the full stack of the future economy: making the panels, manufacturing the batteries, deploying the turbines, and then using that clean power to fuel the world’s biggest data centers and AI labs. By lowering their marginal electricity costs and greening their grid, Chinese leaders are ensuring that their AI buildout isn’t throttled by energy shortages or skyrocketing prices. They’re also positioning themselves to export that model abroad — selling not only hardware but also a narrative of technological self-sufficiency.
Contrast that with the U.S., where our grid is already creaking under strain, where permitting delays and political battles leave renewable projects languishing, and where everyday ratepayers are asked to swallow higher bills so big tech can keep expanding. It’s a bizarre inversion: The country that invented Silicon Valley is leaving its cutting-edge industries to run on an outdated power system, while our biggest global competitor is wiring its AI future to the energy sources of tomorrow.
Aligning America’s energy actions with our AI aspirations
None of this is inevitable. America still has unmatched talent in AI, abundant natural resources for clean power, and the capital to build at scale. What’s missing is alignment between our aspirations and our actions.
It’s not too late to change course. If Trump truly wants America to lead in AI, he needs to restore and expand incentives for wind, solar and storage while also cutting red tape so projects get built faster. He should make sure data centers cover the true costs of their growth instead of shifting them onto families. And he should invest in domestic clean-energy manufacturing so America isn’t just buying its future from abroad but building it here at home.
Those steps aren’t partisan goals. They are pragmatic ones. They’re what it will take to keep bills low, keep the grid reliable and keep the United States competitive in the global race for AI leadership.
Trump likes to frame AI as the space race of our time. But the Apollo program didn’t succeed because we liked the idea of rockets. It succeeded because we made massive investments in building the launchpads, the supply chains, the engineering corps and the infrastructure to make it real.
AI will be no different. Without abundant and affordable clean energy to power it, Trump’s AI moonshot risks burning out on the launchpad, while our rivals soar into the stratosphere.
Leadership means more than speeches and slogans. If America wants to lead in AI, it must lead in clean energy, too. Anything less isn’t just a contradiction. It’s a surrender.