During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) argued that energy costs from data centers “should be internalized by tech companies themselves, rather than exported to the American people.” And “there’s a very important conversation to be had about data centers and energy costs and how those are spilled over onto consumers.”
Co-host Kailey Leinz asked, “[T]he president seems very interested in the idea of the U.S. government having some ownership of the big AI companies. He suggests it could bring more wealth to the public. And I wonder if you think that’s an attractive idea, if the government should be playing that kind of role in some of these very large companies that could soon be public.”
Young answered, “Well, my emphasis is making sure we stay ahead of the Chinese and the capital is deployed efficiently, that these companies are liberated to produce best-in-class models, because we know the Chinese are also sophisticated when it comes to such things. But we have our own system, and it involves — it’s much more heavily emphatic of the private sector needs to lead, as opposed to government. In terms of government ownership, the reservations I would have is that government would too strongly steer the direction of these companies in ways that meet the needs of special interests, instead of customers. I do think there’s a very important conversation to be had about data centers and energy costs and how those are spilled over onto consumers. I think those costs should be internalized by tech companies themselves, rather than exported to the American people.”
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