This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, January 13th, 2026.

We tell you what you need to know, give you the important context and help each other understand.

Ah, yes.

Here I stand with another CES survivor.

Yes.

We return.

Today, Microsoft is saying all the right things about building power for data centers.

Do we believe them?

I'm Jason Howell.

I'm Tom Merritt.

Let's start with what you need to know with a big story.

Yeah, so Microsoft is rolling out what it's calling a community first AI infrastructure plan.

And, you know, we've talked plenty of times on this show about kind of the pushback, the response, the recognition that all these AI data centers, their rising costs for a lot of people's power and utility bills and everything. So this is really, at least according to Microsoft, a response to that

rising public opposition to how all of these large data centers are having direct impacts on

electricity bills, on water systems, local budgets, all sorts of things.

Microsoft is pledging to pay the full cost of power and grid upgrades to keep utilities

from shifting all of those related expenses onto residents.

So I'd say, you know, if you're a resident, that's, that's good news, right? The company

also committing to not seek local property tax breaks, also to improve water efficiency by 40%

by 2030, while at the same time replenishing more water than it's actually using to promote job training and AI education

programs along with the development of its new data centers. And like you said up at the top,

Microsoft's saying a lot of good things. I mean, when I read through this, I'm like, okay,

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