(The Center Square) – Artificial intelligence infrastructure coming to Pennsylvania includes $90 billion from tech giants, energy companies and investment firms betting on the state’s rich power supply.
And it’s got the seal of approval from top federal officials, including U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., and President Donald Trump.
“We believe that America’s destiny is to dominate every industry,” Trump said Tuesday, flanked by investors and cabinet members at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “And that includes being the world’s superpower in AI tech. We’re way ahead in AI tech.”
In recent years, Pennsylvania’s reputation as an energy exporter and its easy access to power plants have risen its profile within investment circles hoping to capitalize on the “AI revolution.”
As part of those aspirations, companies – like Amazon and Microsoft – will invest billions to open data centers and buy the power necessary to run them. In some cases, it takes as much electricity as a small city.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has been a leading voice on this front as part of his efforts to position the commonwealth as a hub for technological advancement – whether its data centers, cutting-edge medical research facilities or economic viability.
Shapiro attended the summit Tuesday in which he detailed how finding common ground with McCormick on energy and technology infrastructure demonstrates the necessity to collaborate across the aisle in Pennsylvania.
“Pennsylvania has always been at the intersection of revolution and opportunity,” Shapiro said acknowledging AI technology would be sure to cause “disruption.” That disruption, he said, would need to be confronted by state and federal legislators to protect the people.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman called the effort “tripartisan,” highlighting the integration of business and governmental interests.
“We’re citizens of the state here. We’re local to the communities where we are.” said Garman. “It doesn’t have to be public sector versus private sector.”
The optimism isn’t shared, however, as many in the region say bigger concerns loom for them – like changes to Medicaid and food stamp benefits, according U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who’s district encompasses parts of the city.
“I stood yesterday with folks outside CMU who know what’s at stake – because while he sells lies, our communities are bracing for the harmful impact of the budget he signed into law,” she said, noting that 28,000 will lose access to these safety net programs.
There’s also concerns about the environment, the stability of the power grid and who will pay for it all.
Data centers create the computing power for AI and store the large amounts of information needed for those technologies, but financial incentives are often opposed because, despite the large amount of money spent on the buildings, they do not require much staff and take a large amount of energy.
At the summit on Tuesday, technology leaders said the criticism is shortsighted. Although data centers require small amounts of staff, the rest of the infrastructure used to power them create thousands of permanent jobs.
Then there’s the cost. The average American’s energy bill could increase from 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers, according to Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.
Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, a Democrat from Philadelphia who chairs of the Pennsylvania House Energy Committee, said Tuesday that bills have risen 10% in the last month alone.
“Temperatures are rising, people are running out of money, and now Trump and his billionaire friends are pushing prices even higher in their war against the clean energy revolution,” she said. “That’s bad for taxpayers and bad for Pennsylvania.”
According to a poll released last month by Libertas Network, most U.S. voters oppose having data centers built in their community and even more oppose the data centers if tax incentives are awarded to have them built.
Libertas had Overton Insights ask the data center questions upon suggestion from The Center Square.
The poll asked voters specifically if they supported or opposed building new data centers for artificial intelligence in their community with 46% of respondents strongly or somewhat opposing the prospect, 36% strongly or somewhat supporting and 18% uncertain.
Christina Lengyel and J.D. Davidson contributed to this report.
