US Information Sector NAICS 51

Jan 16, 2026 - Proposal Would Require Tech Giants To Pay Increasing Power Costs

• President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel information technology companies to effectively fund new power plants, according to Bloomberg News. The plan is intended to address growing tension over how the nation can supply electricity to power-hungry data centers without also increasing utility bills for homes and other businesses. President Trump and the governors urged the PJM Interconnection regional transmission organization to hold an auction so data center owners could bid on 15-year power purchase agreements in what would be a stark departure from how the grid operator normally operates. PJM normally ensures that it has enough power supplies to meet its needs through capacity auctions held in advance of when the power is actually needed. Under that system, power plant owners are paid to be available to produce electricity in the upcoming delivery year, which normally begins about three years after the auction is held. The proposed emergency auction could support $15 billion in new power plants, according to a US Department of Energy (DOE) fact sheet on the agreement. The data centers would be required to pay for the new generation built for them, whether they use the power or not, DOE said.
• US data center power demand could hit 106 gigawatts by 2035, according to BloombergNEF, marking a 36% increase since its last forecast in April 2025. The upward revision was primarily driven by a wave of deals for data centers that aren’t under construction yet but have entered the queue early to secure power. The report arrives as investors increasingly question whether the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into the chips, servers, and energy infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence will yield returns. It’s unclear how much of today’s pipeline will actually come online, according to BloombergNEF. The capacity under construction has remained stable since BNEF’s previous outlook.

• Streaming has surpassed broadcast and cable as a share of total television viewing, according to audience measurement firm Nielsen. Streaming accounted for 44.8% of viewership in May, while broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) together represented 44.2% of viewership. YouTube had four straight months of TV share increase through May, Nielsen said. The platform, owned by Google and its parent company, Alphabet, boasted the highest share of TV consumption among all streamers in May, with a 12.5% share. Netflix, Disney-owned platforms including ESPN and Hulu, Amazon's Prime Video, and the Roku Channel were also in the top five. The three largest FAST (free ad-supported) channels — Paramount's Pluto TV, the Roku Channel and Fox's Tubi — combined for 5.7% of total TV viewing in May, more than any individual broadcast network.
• The Producer Price Index for all information firms decreased 2.1% quarter over quarter during the second quarter of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information industry sales are forecast to grow at a 4.94% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.