Expansion of the domestic technology sector is the strongest part of the American economy. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft cumulatively plan to invest more than $364 billion in developing their respective artificial intelligence infrastructure.
All of this infrastructure, including data centers, will require vast amounts of energy, which will ultimately hit consumers.
Domestic electricity inflation inside the July consumer price index increased by 9.5% on a six-month average annualized basis. While that increase is below the cyclical peak of 20.63% during the pandemic-era inflation shock, it will most likely move higher.
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Between 2010 and 2019, CPI electricity inflation increased by 11.77% over a 10-year period.
More recently, that figure has taken off. Between 2020 and July 2025, it’s up by 37.87%, most of which has to do with the rapid evolution of demand from the tech sector.
With firms like Nvidia pledging to invest $500 billion to manufacture AI-enabled chips in the U.S., the price of domestic electricity is likely to soar.
The question is how the public will respond as their utility bills increase, and if that rise will in turn lead to expanding the range of resources dedicated to generating power.
