Under the proposal, the auction would award 15‑year contracts for new generation capacity. The administration says those contracts would provide roughly $15 billion in financeable revenue to support construction of new power plants. AI-generated illustrationThe plan names the region’s largest cloud and AI companies as the primary targets. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, OpenAI and others are listed as potential bidders whose long‑term commitments would underwrite new capacity. But forcing private customers to underwrite capacity also risks legal challenges and could shift costs into corporate budgets; whether those costs are passed to consumers, absorbed by shareholders, or prompt further on‑site generation investment by firms remains open.

Source: Mint January 18, 2026 00:10 UTC