IN the US state of Ohio, a battle pitting one of the country's largest electric utilities against some of the world's largest companies over how to allocate financial risk from the explosive growth of data centers may serve as an object lesson for countries like the Philippines, which are eager to cash in on the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven gold rush.

The case before the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Ohio was launched by American Electric Power (AEP), one of the state's biggest employers and richest companies, which ordinarily has a tremendous amount of clout in regulatory matters. However, on the opposite side of the table this time is a coalition of some of the world's most influential companies — Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.