Exclusive: Senate Investigation Challenges Big Tech’s Case for AI Data Centers

As the world's biggest technology companies race to build data centers across the country to power an AI boom, a yearlong Senate investigation argues that some firms are misleading the public about the true costs and benefits around those projects. The findings, first shared with TIME, are expected to be part of a broader effort in the coming year by members of Congress hoping to put more guardrails around the massive, power-intensive projects. “Congress must hold Big Tech accountable so these companies pay their fair share,” says Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has called for a national moratorium on new AI data centers until developers agree to cover the full costs.Warren's office led the investigation with fellow Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, which focused on seven major data center developers—Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, CoreWeave, Digital Realty, and Equinix. The senators’ staff requested information from each company and interviewed employees. The findings, which largely match reporting from various news outlets over the past year, offer a detailed look at the increasingly contentious economi...