U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged data center companies to "MAKE DEALS" with local communities to ensure their support for the costly facilities.

Trump said that to make them more popular, data center operators should pay the community, "and/or individuals within the community, a 'dividend.'"

"I have watched the process closely, and Data Centers that were highly unpopular in a certain area, have become extremely popular when a financial deal is struck. MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!! GREAT FOR THE U.S.A.," the president said in a post on Truth Social.

Data centers have become a hot-button issue ahead of the midterm elections in November. Public opposition to the buildout of the facilities and their environmental impact has been growing, with multiple states considering moratoriums.

AI infrastructure company Nebius is "100% in principle" having discussions about investing in communities, the company's Chief Revenue Officer Marc Boroditsky told CNBC when asked about Trump's suggestion of a dividend.

There could be "some sort of way where the rewards are actually funneled back to the community," Boroditsky told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal on the sidelines of Nvidia's GTC Berlin conference.

"We see it today in terms of the tax revenue that are arriving. I could see something like a benefit of some sort that's more direct economic opportunity for the community as well," he said.

watch now

Boroditsky added: "A dividend is being paid in different forms — investing in education, job development, overall economic development. The concept that the president identified... it's not crazy to consider something like that."

Data center stocks have also come under pressure this week amid growing concerns about the financial health of the sector. As the AI infrastructure buildout grows more costly, companies are increasingly turning to debt markets to finance deals.

When it comes to investing in infrastructure underpinning the technology, HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery advised discernment over an all-in approach.

"One has to be selective," Elhedery told CNBC's Dan Murphy on Tuesday. "You have to look at the quality of the tenancy agreements. You have to look at the pricing of these contracts. Not all of them are of that level of virtuosity that you can support strongly. Some of them may be more challenging."

Power constraints

Much of the concern centers around water usage, power consumption, electricity prices, and the sheer amount of space that some centers require. Access to power is a major constraint on the sector, as power grids in the U.S. and Europe become overwhelmed with applications from large energy users like data centers.

"Energy is always a bottleneck, and trying to find powered land and areas that we can build large-scale AI factories is a big focus for us," Chase Lochmiller, CEO of compute infrastructure firm Crusoe, told CNBC Wednesday in Berlin.

"Increasingly there's a lot of policy permitting and just working through local communities to make sure that everything can come online effectively," he said.

Trump, a long-time supporter of data centers, said Wednesday that he has been watching them "very closely" and has now come to a "very strong conclusion."

"New and large, in some cases gigantic, Data  enters are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid, and therefore there is electric price increase. In fact, there could be a substantial decrease," Trump said, in a post around 1.37 a.m. ET.

In some cases, data centers can operate as flexible loads, adjusting their electricity use to help stabilize the grid.

Hyperscalers have secured deals where they agree to help finance badly needed updates to local power grids. However, some experts have warned that the AI boom will ultimately result in higher electricity prices.

Read more data center news

• The AI election: Wall Street braces for midterms amid mounting opposition to data centers
• America’s data center fight is a preview of what’s to come for the rest of the world
• Google says it can build data centers the right way. Some experts and residents are skeptical
• SpaceX launches Google AI chips into orbit in push toward space-based data centers
• AI data centers are transforming rural land markets — and fueling a backlash
• Nvidia plays matchmaker in Nordics, sources tell CNBC, as AI data center deals boom in region
• Anthropic and OpenAI hunt for smaller data center deals, sources tell CNBC, in race to deploy AI capacity
• Bill to curb AI data center utility costs hits snag in Senate
• The AI boom is colliding with a new threat: Severe weather
• Digital Realty falls 5% after taking $3.5 billion stake in Blackstone’s Virginia data centers
• Anthropic’s latest hiring spree reveals where it’s building AI data centers next

• No one wants AI data centers on Earth. Do they make sense in space?
• Why AI demand is pushing data centers to the edge of Europe
• Denmark faces data center reckoning as power grid overwhelmed by surging demand
• Major data center company pauses investment decisions in Middle East amid Iran war, CEO tells CNBC
• Anthropic looks to hire six-figure role for negotiating data center deals to fuel Europe AI expansion
• AI data center boom ‘stress tests’ insurers as private capital floods in
• Data center expansion reaches an ‘inflection point’
• How the AI debt binge shattered hyperscalers’ ‘unspoken contract’ with investors
• Powering AI: Europe switches on its first microgrid-connected data center

• How the red-hot AI data center boom is igniting demand for a new, lucrative career path: Trade workers
• Dust to data centers: The year AI tech giants, and billions in debt, began remaking the American landscape
• Quantum’s big leap puts data centers in the spotlight
• Data center deals hit record $61 billion in 2025 amid construction frenzy