The AI boom is forcing the biggest power buildout in US history, and regular electricity customers are paying for it.

• Utilities plan $1.4 trillion in spending by 2030 to power AI data centers, a buildout bigger than the Apollo program and rivaling the interstate highway system.
• Data centers create almost no jobs — one permanent job per $13 million spent — yet states like Virginia gave away billions in tax breaks to attract them.
• Data centers could eat up to 12% of US electricity by 2028, and 40% of Virginia's power grid will go to running them.
• Power companies asked for $31 billion in rate hikes last year, double the year before, and most got approved.
• States are pushing back hard: 300 bills and 100 local bans appeared in just the first six weeks of 2026, but power and tech lobbyists have stalled most of them.

Outlook: Electricity bills will keep rising and become a major midterm election issue unless lawmakers force AI companies to pay for their own power.