Trump Urges Senate to Make Data Centers “Pay for Their Own Electricity.” Power Builders Stand to Gain Roxanna Maglangit Mon, November 9, 2026 at 11:07 AM EST 6 min read GEV +7.26% MSFT +2.04% VST +6.60% CEG +8.48% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
President Trump urged senators on Sunday to pass S. 5653, a permitting bill he says would speed up power plant construction and make data centers pay for their own electricity.
Data center owners like Microsoft would pay for the new power, and GE Vernova, Vistra and Constellation Energy are the companies paid to build and run it.
GE Vernova had 122 gigawatts of gas equipment under contract after its third quarter, and analysts expect its revenue to rise from $38.1 billion in 2025 to $61.3 billion in 2028.
The bill may not pass before Democrats take control of Congress in January, but utilities and states are already making data centers cover the cost of their power.
President Donald Trump wants data centers to pay for their own power, and he wants the Senate to make it law before Democrats take over Congress in January.
On Sunday evening, he posted on Truth Social urging every senator to vote for S. 5653, which he said will "ensure that we can build Pipelines, Mines, and Power Plants faster than ever before." Then came the part data center owners will notice: the bill "codifies my RATEPAYER PROTECTION PLEDGE, ensuring Data Centers build and pay for their own Electricity."
That means a bigger bill for Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) and the other data center builders. For GE Vernova (GEV:NYSE), Vistra (VST:NYSE) and Constellation Energy (CEG:NASDAQ), it means faster permits and customers who cover the cost of the new plants they need.
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S. 5653 was introduced on Sept. 30 by Republican Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee and Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich. Congress.gov's summary says it would narrow which federal projects need an environmental review and set deadlines for issuing permits once a review is done. It would also direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to set ratepayer protections for large computing loads like data centers. The Senate hasn't moved it past introduction yet.
Trump wants a vote now because the midterms showed deep voter unease over data centers, and Democrats take both chambers in January. The power stocks felt that too: GE Vernova fell 10% and Vistra 12% on Nov. 4, the day after the election.
On Cipher Digital's third-quarter call, an analyst asked CEO Tyler Page about the equipment needed to turn natural gas into power at Cipher's sites. His answer: "There just aren't enough turbines and reciprocating engines in the world."
That puts the pricing power with whoever makes them. GE Vernova's third-quarter orders rose 96% organically to $29.3 billion, and its gas equipment under contract reached 122 gigawatts. Management now expects at least 130 gigawatts by year-end. Its CEO also said 2026's gas orders will be priced about 50% higher per kilowatt than 2025's.
Analysts expect that order book to keep turning into revenue, from $38.1 billion in 2025 to $61.3 billion in 2028:
Bernstein made the same case on Nov. 3 when it named GE Vernova a pick. Its argument was that where politics bite, developers will pay a bigger share of power and grid costs and still keep buying turbines and transformers. S. 5653 would turn that into federal law.
Vistra is adding capacity to sell. In October it closed its purchase of Cogentrix Energy, which brings about 5,500 megawatts of gas-fired generation. It also signed a 20-year power deal with New Era Energy and Digital at its Odessa gas plant in Texas. Its third-quarter adjusted EBITDA from ongoing operations rose more than 50% to $2.38 billion, and it guided 2027 to $7.7-$8.5 billion, up from $7.1-$7.5 billion for 2026.
Analysts expect earnings per share to more than double, from $4.76 in 2025 to $10.44 in 2028:
Constellation is selling large customers the same thing. Today it reported third-quarter adjusted operating earnings of $5.06 a share, up from $3.04 a year ago, and raised its full-year outlook. CEO Joe Dominguez said in the release that its new agreements add more than 1,000 megawatts of generation, and "are coming online with no costs being borne by existing customers." So the big customers are already paying for new plants.
Those deals have data center owners on the other side, and Microsoft shows how big that spending has gotten. Its capital spending reached $116 billion in the year to June 2026, nearly five times the $23.9 billion it spent in fiscal 2022:
Some of that money already buys new generation. Vistra's 405-megawatt Pulaski solar facility in Illinois started running last quarter under a power purchase agreement with Microsoft. A federal rule would make that the norm for every new data center, adding a new line to Microsoft's bill on top of capex that rose about 80% in a single year.
The bill could easily stall. If it hasn't passed when this Congress ends in early January, it starts over under Democratic control. Still, two of its four sponsors are Democrats, and utilities aren't waiting on Washington. Asked how he looks at the AI build-out on last week's episode of In Good Company, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said "data centers have to pay their fair share." He added that NextEra and Dominion have both signed the pledge, and that Florida just wrote its large-load tariff into state law.
The bigger risk is fewer data centers getting built. Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has pledged to hold off approving new projects "until we have those protections." But data centers made up only about 20% of GE Vernova's contracted gas gigawatts as of its second quarter. The rest belong to traditional customers.
The way I see it, GE Vernova is the cleanest way to own this. Whoever ends up paying for new power, somebody still has to buy the turbines, and there aren't enough of them. Of course, the next test comes when GE Vernova reports in late January and shows whether it hit 130 gigawatts.
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