Illinois lawmakers race to finalize $55B budget as Bears stadium talks take back seat on final day of session

How terribly generous of the state to let them. After years of letting tech companies feast on subsidised energy while promising 'economic growth,' the bill finally asks hyperscalers to cover their own grid costs — a radical notion that will surely send shivers through every AI lab that assumed infinite cheap power was an immutable law of nature.

Of course, this is all happening on the final day of session, because nothing says 'thoughtful regulation' like a last-minute scramble. The Bears stadium talks have been pushed aside, but never mind — there's always time to sort out the minor issue of how to power the tens of thousands of GPUs that will soon be gobbling up Illinois' grid. One imagines the lobbyists from TechNet, fresh from their statehouse tour, are now making frantic calls to Springfield.

So here we are: the most consequential AI infrastructure regulation of the year is a side clause in a budget deal hammered out in a rush. The state is effectively saying, 'You want to build a data centre? Great — just pay your own way.' In a world where AI companies have grown accustomed to externalising costs, this feels almost like a revolutionary act. Let's see how long it takes for someone to lobby an exemption.