The Kobeissi Letter says US electricity prices are 'skyrocketing', with average residential prices up 11% since January 2025 to 19.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in August 2026, near an all-time high, and links the rise to AI-driven demand. Average prices in the first eight months of 2026 were 40% higher than the same period in 2019, with Maine up 90% and California and New York up nearly 70%. The post notes that a 1-gigawatt data center can consume as much electricity as 800,000 homes, and wholesale prices near data center activity rose as much as 267% between 2020 and 2025. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned AI companies' promises to pay Americans thousands of dollars a month, while the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 last month, and under a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI, xAI and Amazon agreed to cover grid upgrades tied to their data centers.
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electricitycost of livingdata centersartificial intelligenceMSFT
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Related tickers and likely impact
MSFT
▼ Likely negativeMicrosoft
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $4.0T |
| Close on 10/22/2026 | 521.58 |
| Change that session | -2.13% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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