Your electric bill is about to rise. Not because you left the lights on, not because you cranked the AC too high — but because AI billionaires are wiring their empires into your wallet.
These new AI data centers are not modest server rooms. They’re sprawling complexes that guzzle as much power as entire cities. To keep them running day and night, utilities are rushing to build new gas and coal plants, miles of new power lines, and massive substations. And who pays for all this? You do.
The Scam Behind “Free AI”
Big Tech wants you to believe AI is free. Type in a prompt, get an answer. No cost. But that’s a lie.
The real bill shows up in your monthly electric statement. Every time a billionaire launches another AI project, utilities quietly raise your rates to cover their insatiable demand. This is the hidden tax of AI — and it’s coming straight out of your pocket.
Who Really Benefits?
Not you. Not your neighbors. Not struggling families or retirees living on fixed incomes.
The winners are:
- Billionaire tech companies that refuse to pay the full cost of the power they devour.
- Utilities who lock in decades of new fossil fuel infrastructure, guaranteed profit passed through to ratepayers.
- Politicians who hand out subsidies and tax breaks under the cover of “economic development.”
Meanwhile, you get a bigger bill, and your community gets more smokestacks.
Side Story: Louisiana’s Billion-Dollar Burden
Want proof? Look at Louisiana.
Meta is building a $10 billion data center in Richland Parish — the size of 70 football fields. To power it, Entergy is rushing three brand-new gas plants onto the grid. Regulators approved the deal, even though the price tag is staggering: billions in infrastructure costs and a $550 million transmission line.
Who pays? Not Meta. Louisiana’s families do.
Residents, already hit with an 11% rate increase since 2024, will now bankroll the billionaire project — while Meta’s AI empire hums along, “free” to the user but very expensive to the people paying the light bill.
What Needs to Change
If these companies want bottomless power for their AI dreams, then:
- Make them pay 100% of their grid costs.
- Tie every new data center to real renewable generation, not hand-wavy promises.
- Protect households from being used as piggy banks for billionaires.
Final Thought
The next time your electric bill lands in your mailbox, ask yourself:
Is this paying for my lights — or for billionaires’ data centers?
Because right now, the answer is obvious.
And in places like Louisiana, the evidence is already staring us in the face.