US President Donald Trump: Building a Data Centre Empire
US President Donald Trump’s second Presidency has hit the ground running, with countless executive orders and international investments taking place with the goal of keeping the US booming.
With the US data centre market having boomed significantly over the past several years, individual states have played a critical role in driving greater investments across the industry. Local governments and authorities have often offered tax incentives to entice data centre operators to build in their state, with the end goal being to boost GDP and support the local community.
As a result, the US data centre industry has enjoyed much growth, which has been powered largely by the country’s hyperscale companies. Amazon, Microsoft and Google are just some of the many organisations that have built large data centres to run their cloud platforms and now, President Trump is eager to keep that momentum going.
With his return to office, plenty more changes are expected to impact the data centre industry to support national interests. There is also hope that Trump will continue to widely support technology innovation and drive continued development.
The US data centre story so far
Ahead of the November 2024 election, the Biden Administration entered somewhat of a ‘trade debate’ with the People’s Republic of China over semiconductors, actually placing restrictions on the country’s exports.
As a result, former US President Joe Biden’s time in office has been remembered for these restrictions on essential components to build AI systems. The government wanted to ensure that the US could gain advantage over China over advanced chip production – although citing national security as the main reason.
Alongside this, President Biden’s government authorised the CHIPS and Science Act, which authorised billion-dollar funding to boost national research and manufacturing of semiconductors within the US.
Trump was critical of the CHIPS Act in the past and it remains to be seen if he will continue this funding now that he is in office. Currently, it has been suggested that changes will be made, but nothing has been confirmed.
Significantly, however, he has revoked Biden’s 2023 executive order on AI risk, saying: “The United States has long been at the forefront of AI innovation, driven by the strength of our free markets, world-class research institutions and entrepreneurial spirit.
“To maintain this leadership, we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas. With the right Government policies, we can solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.”
The chip controversy
Chips, or semiconductors, are essential components of a data centre and are used to power AI workloads. Trump recently indicated that chips were set to face higher tariffs and said in February that the administration could introduce a “25% or higher” tariff across all semiconductor chips the United States imports.
The news sent shockwaves through international trade, particularly as Trump suggested the tariffs would “go substantially higher over a course of a year,” he said, adding he would allow time for the affected companies to bring their factories to the US.
“We want to give them a little bit of a chance,” he said.
Tariffs of this scale could have an immense impact on the AI and data centre industries around the world and result in higher prices for customers and increased costs for businesses.
For leading chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TMSC) and NVIDIA, rising tariffs pose multiple difficulties – mostly because their manufacturing facilities are in Asia. The technology industry very much relies on these sites to build the electronics Americans are used to.
The threats of tariffs prompted Trump and TSMC to announce a US$100bn plan to build five new US factories in March, in a move that Trump said meant TSMC would avoid the industry-wide 25% tariffs.
For the hyperscalers, price increases could mean they would have to pay more to grow their data centres in their pursuit of AI innovation.
According to the Financial Times, Beijing is looking for leverage in talks with US President Donald Trump. Shortly after Trump indicated a tariff increase, China has launched antitrust investigations into Google and leading chipmaker Nvidia was reportedly considering a new probe against Intel.
Nvidia remains one of the world’s largest makers of advanced AI semiconductors.
“US digital services contribute 7% of the entire GDP and leading tech companies make up about a third of the value of the S&P 500’s market capitalisation,” comments Matthew Schruers, President and CEO at CCIA.
“Policies that enable growth result in increased benefits to the overall US economy, job creation and help US companies compete with China.”
Why is Donald Trump interested in data centres?
Biden’s government was also very active in its support for data centre development, with Biden signing an executive order shortly before his departure to provide federal support to address national energy needs for fast-growing advanced AI data centres.
As developers navigate data centre demands throughout 2025, a range of challenges will impact the sector. According to Moody’s Ratings, roughly US$2.5tn of investment will be needed to meet “unconstrained demand growth” through 2028.
When it comes to Trump, we are expecting he will continue supporting US interest in data centres in order to power ahead in AI advancements. Eager to boost the US market further, he signed an agreement with DAMAC Properties shortly before he retook office in January 2025.
US$20bn was pledged by DAMAC founder Hussain Sajwani to build new data centres across the US, with its global infrastructure company EDGNEX Data Centers by DAMAC simultaneously announcing its strategic entry into the US data centre market.
The White House has also indicated support for the Stargate initiative, led by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, suggesting emergency declarations could be made to facilitate power infrastructure development for computing facilities to build AI.
Speaking at the time, Trump noted: “What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor, others are competitors. We want to be in this country, and we're making it available.”
In addition to Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. joined US investment firm Dominari Holdings as it announced its entry into the US data centre market. The organisation has launched a high-performance computing (HPC) data centre unit, American Data Centers Inc (ADC), alongside the Trumps, to focus on growing AI infrastructure.
Working alongside Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, who will be on the advisory board, Dominari will hold 32% ownership of the company. Their involvement has attracted investors and led to the company witnessing its share prices rise by 1,118% since the start of 2025.
The company noted: “Their guidance is expected to be instrumental as we continue to seek attractive investment opportunities, particularly in the rapidly evolving AI and data centre sector.”
What about sustainability?
With Trump’s enthusiasm for growth, it seems that there could be more investments to come, but it remains to be seen how the global markets will react.
However, with sustainability becoming more of the focus for data centres this year, will Trump’s plans for growth consider the need for reducing emissions?
With the growth of AI leading to greater water and energy use, data centre companies around the world are seeking to lower their emissions whilst also innovating at the same rate.
So far, Trump has not been prioritising sustainability, having pulled the US out of several global climate agreements. However, it remains essential for the global data centre industry to find new ways to keep emissions down to avoid putting pressure on the grid.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said: “The global clean energy boom - worth US$2tn last year alone and rising fast – is the economic growth deal of the decade. “Embracing it will mean massive profits, millions of manufacturing jobs and clean air.
“Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse, destroying property and businesses, hitting nation-wide food production, and driving economy-wide price inflation.”
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