Data centers now under some growing pressure, not just in the markets, but also on Capitol Hill.

Three Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Richard Blumenthal are investigating big tech's role in rising power costs.

Our dear Dubosa is digging into that in today's tech check. Hey, Dee.

Hey, morning, Carl. So this opens up a new front of risk for the AI trade. Wall Street,

yes, it's already started pricing in the financial side of the AI buildout, but what is not yet priced in is a political risk.

So in those letters sent to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and three data center companies, including CoreWeave, the senators say AI data centers are forcing billions in grid upgrades,

and households not big tech are footing the bill. So they point to data centers that are

already consuming more than 4% of U.S. electricity, with government estimates showing that that could

triple to 12% by 2028 driving utility investments that get passed through to ratepayers.

Now, the blowback, it's not just happening in Washington.

In Arizona last week, city officials unanimously rejected a proposed AI data center in New

Jersey and Virginia, rising electricity prices played rules in statewide races.

Now, all of this matters because it ties AI infrastructure costs directly to

inflation, still the most sensitive voter issue. Power bills are tangible in a way that cloud

CAPEX is not, and that political pressure, that can raise costs fast. By the way, there's no White

House backstop. President Trump's executive order targeting state rules on AI models, it does

not preempt state or local regulation of data centers or power use. Now, that means that this

fight stays at that level where power bills and land zoning, those matter the most. So rising

political costs, it would also hit the AI trade at a sensitive moment. As we know, investors,

they're already pushing for more discipline and a clear path from spend to revenue. And then

there's also China. We've shown this chart to you before. Electricity generation there continues

to rise while U.S. output is flat to down. So if AI is a race of compute and power, China has a structural advantage.

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