A bill to exempt AI data centers from bonus depreciation and require data center operators to submit certain information relating to electricity and water use by data centers, and for other purposes.

On July 21, 2026, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced S5054, a bill to exempt AI data centers from bonus depreciation and require operators to submit electricity and water usage data. The bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, placing it in an early legislative stage. No cosponsors have been added, and no companion bill exists in the House, indicating limited momentum. The bill does not authorize or appropriate any funding; it is a tax and reporting measure that increases costs for data center operators. The primary mechanism is removing bonus depreciation for AI data centers, which allows accelerated depreciation of capital investments, thereby increasing taxable income for new builds. Additionally, the reporting requirements impose compliance costs. The affected sectors are Technology (cloud providers) and Utilities (data center operators). Key tickers include data center REITs $EQIX and $DLR, which are directly exposed to capital cost increases, and cloud providers (AWS), (Azure), and (Google Cloud), which operate large AI data center fleets. The bill's impact is moderate but early-stage; passage is uncertain. The legislative path requires committee markup, Senate floor vote, and House passage, which is unlikely given the lack of bipartisan support. No convergence with other signals is identified, as no related bills or procurement actions are provided.