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There is a point where a number gets so large it stops feeling real. A billion dollars is hard enough to picture. Five trillion is just noise.That is roughly what one company is now worth. Nvidia (NVDA), the chipmaker whose hardware runs almost every major artificial intelligence (AI) system, became the first company in history to touch a $5 trillion market value, according to CNBC. By this month, it had pushed past $5.5 trillion, worth more than the economic output of every country on Earth except the United States and China, reported 24/7 Wall St.Most of that value sits with a small group of founders, executives, and early investors. The chatbot you use for free did not make you richer. Your electricity bill, on the other hand, has probably gone up, partly to power the data centers behind the boom.That gap is exactly what one senator wants to close. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is calling for a sweeping change to the U.S. tax code aimed squarely at the AI industry, arguing the gains from the technology should reach ordinary households and not just the wealthy few.What Elizabeth Warren wants to taxWarren laid out the case in an op-ed for Time magazine, where she argued the country should start taxing AI and putting the money back into workers and families.Her central idea is an excise tax on the energy that AI data centers consume, designed to scale with size. As Warren wrote, “the bigger the data center, the more they pay.”More AI:Micron sits at the center of a red-hot chip rallyIBM CEO sends blunt message on AI and quantum computingAnthropic CEO makes shocking admission about AIThe logic is straightforward. Data centers are driving up demand for electricity, and households are absorbing part of the cost through higher utility bills. An energy tax would let families recoup some of that money, the senator argued, according to The Hill.Warren has long pushed for a federal wealth tax, and she named AI leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Amazon (AMZN) chief Jeff Bezos. She also took aim at tax rules that reward companies for buying equipment instead of hiring, calling the current setup “a tax penalty for hiring human beings,” according to The Hill.She floated bolder proposals too, including ideas she admitted sound radical today, though she stopped short of spelling them out. Even Altman has suggested giving citizens a stake in AI’s growth through a public wealth fund, but his version asks far less of the industry than Warren’s does.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is proposing a new tax on AI firms and their data centers.Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images

Why your power bill is tied to the AI boomThe reason Warren keeps pointing at data centers is that they have become some of the hungriest electricity customers in the country, and that demand lands on the same grid that powers your home.Researchers at North Carolina State University and partner schools found that data center and crypto demand could raise electricity costs by as much as 57% in some regions by 2030, with a national average increase of 6% to 29%, according to NC State. Related: The pros and cons of using AI for your taxesLead author Jeremiah Johnson said U.S. power demand “was relatively flat for almost 20 years.”That run is over. Goldman Sachs analysts expect household electricity prices to climb another 6% through 2027, with data center growth a key reason, reported CNBC.When I lined up Nvidia’s market value against national economies using International Monetary Fund data, the scale of what Warren is targeting came into focus. This is not a normal company being asked to pay a normal tax.Nvidia’s market value tops the annual gross domestic product of Japan, based on IMF World Economic Outlook data.It exceeds the output of India, which is home to more than 1.4 billion people, the IMF noted.Only the U.S. and China produce more in a year than Nvidia is worth, reported 24/7 Wall St.Nvidia runs on roughly 36,000 employees, a fraction of the workforce behind any of those economies, according to Visual Capitalist.What an AI tax would mean for your moneyIn my analysis, the part that matters most for your money is not the politics. It is the question of who pays for the AI buildout, and whether that bill keeps quietly showing up in places you never agreed to.Start with what you already own. If you hold an index fund or a 401(k), you almost certainly own a slice of Nvidia and the other AI giants. Their gains have lifted your retirement balance. A new tax on their data centers could squeeze margins and rattle valuations that already look stretched, which is one reason short-sellers like Michael Burry have started betting against the trade.Then there is your paycheck. Warren ties the AI boom to layoffs in some sectors, and the tax rules she wants to rewrite currently make machines cheaper to deploy than people. If that math does not change, the pressure on jobs doesn’t, either.And there is the bill on your kitchen counter. The same data centers powering your kid’s homework helper are pushing your electricity rate up. Warren’s plan tries to hand part of that cost back to you instead of leaving it on your monthly statement.Whether any of this becomes law is a long shot in a divided Congress that has struggled to pass even basic AI rules. But Warren has put a price tag on a question voters are already asking.With electricity costs shaping races from New Jersey to Virginia, expect more politicians to start asking who should pay for the machines: you, or the companies worth more than most of the planet?Related: IRS issues harsh warning about AI and taxes

With a population of nearly four million residents, Berlin is at once the capital of Germany and the largest city in continental Europe. The city’s large geographical size and layers of history mean that it can be a lot of different things to a lot of different travelers. Some come to Berlin to walk along East Side Gallery and learn about the Cold War period during which the city was split in two while others come for business or the world-class museums of Museum Island.Still others want to dive into the culinary scene that runs the gamut of Döner and Currywurst from street stalls and Michelin-starred restaurants; Berlin is also a music destination for both fans of underground raves and opera connoisseurs.Berlin nabs top spot as best travel destination for opera fansHome to three major opera houses of which the oldest Staatsoper Unter den Linden dates back to 1742, Berlin landed on the top of a list of the world’s best opera travel destinations compiled by British luxury travel company Pettitts Travel.Looking at four factors including the total number of opera houses and performances in 2026, the travel agency ranked Berlin above Paris, London and Vienna — the latter city was home to composers like Beethoven and Mozart and is most commonly associated with music — as the best city in the world to experience opera.While aficionados of the theatre form will already know about the wide range of classical and innovative performances given throughout the year at the Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper and Komische Oper, Berlin’s large size means that this aspect of the city’s culture often gets lost among the big-city tumult and countless other experiences one can delve into on a visit.

Berlin is home to three major opera houses.Getty Images

“No shortage of options when exploring Berlin’s rich musical scene”Paris, which is home to the globally-recognized Palais Garnais, landed in second place due to the slightly lower number of annual performances scheduled for the rest of 2026 while Budapest, Munich and Amsterdam rounded out the top 10.New York was the only non-European city to land on the list in 10th place.”While this may come as a surprise compared with more traditional opera capitals such as Verona or Milan, our data reflects the German capital’s exceptional operatic offering,” Pettitts writes of Berlin’s placement. “The city hosts the highest number of opera performances in 2026 (98), alongside one of the largest amounts of opera venues (surpassed only by London), giving visitors no shortage of options when exploring Berlin’s rich musical scene.”More Travel News:Airline to launch unusual new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.What you can expect at Disneyland’s new ‘World of Frozen’Unexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026U.S. government issues strange warning on Ireland travelTraditionally, an art form associated with the elite, the opera market in different countries has, over the years, been marked by both challenges and tailwinds.While already-high and rising ticket costs led to a post-pandemic attendance slump in many cities around the world, places that experiment with dynamic pricing and student rush tickets are often able to find new audiences that subsequently breathe new life into the art form.The latest market report also shows that the global opera market, which was valued at $3.8 billion USD in 2025, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% and be valued at just over $6.1 billion by 2034.Related: This airline is betting big on France and Québec City travel