Released July 17, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In the past, Pittsburgh was the capital of the steel industry. In the future, some want to make it, and the state of Pennsylvania, the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. That was the upshot of the "Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit," held July 15 on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.
U.S. Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) convened the event. His office said that at least $90 billion of commitments have been made to build energy or AI facilities in Pennsylvania to turn that state, and the city of Pittsburgh in particular, into an AI and energy hub. The half-day event featured remarks from a who's who of federal and state officials, AI companies, financiers and energy firms.
The half-day event featured numerous representatives of the current administration, including President Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and a host of other state and local officials also spoke at the July 15 event.
They were joined by a bevy of corporate executives, including: Darren Woods, chief executive officer (CEO) at Exxon Mobil Corporation (Spring, Texas); Toby Rice, CEO at EQT Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer at Blackstone Incorporated (New York, New York); Larry Fink, CEO at BlackRock Incorporated (New York, New York); Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management (Toronto, Ontario); Mat Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (Seattle, Washington) Dario Amodei, CEO at AI firm Anthropic (San Francisco, California); and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer at Alphabet Incorporated (Mountain View, California).
Industrial Info is tracking about 28 planned artificial intelligence projects in Pennsylvania, with an aggregate value of about $10.4 billion.
The event was said to be a run-up to a White House AI action plan, scheduled for release next week. The plan reportedly will include sections of expediting permitting for energy infrastructure and power generation as well as speeding up permitting for tech infrastructure projects.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google said it would invest $25 billion into data centers needed to train AI models and related infrastructure in Pennsylvania and the surrounding region over the next two years. Private-equity firm Blackstone committed to make an investment of over $25 billion. AI startup CoreWeave (Livingston, New Jersey) announced a $6 billion investment.
Blackstone executives said their investment of more than $25 billion would "help catalyze" an additional $60 billion of energy and AI investments in Pennsylvania.
"We're thrilled to be investing behind two of our highest conviction themes ---- digital infrastructure and energy -- in a part of the country that is ideally situated to support and expand America's leading position in the AI revolution," Jon Gray, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with our partners in government, local communities, and with the people of Pennsylvania to meaningfully invest in the growth of the commonwealth's digital and energy infrastructure."
A colleague, Sean Klimczak, Blackstone's global head of infrastructure, added: "Pennsylvania is transforming into a strategic hub for AI innovation, and we're excited to work with our partners at PPL to invest in the generation needed to support this critical digital infrastructure."
Other energy companies, including EQT, ExxonMobil and FirstEnergy (Akron, Ohio), got into the act too, pledging to invest billions to build new electric generation and increase gas production in the region, which sits atop the Marcellus and Utica shales, according to the White House.
In a statement, Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of electric utility PPL Corporation (Allentown, Pennsylvania), commented: "We're excited to leverage the powerful expertise that PPL and Blackstone Infrastructure possess to bring much-needed new dispatchable generation online in Pennsylvania to match new data center load in a way that directly supports economic development and large load customer needs, helps to mitigate rising electricity prices for energy consumers, and delivers increased value for shareowners without traditional merchant power risk."
From the speaker's podium, the president said, "Today's commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh, and I have to say, right here in the United States of America. We have the hottest country, and we're going to keep it that way." He also spoke of his desire to streamline permitting for various industrial projects across the U.S. "We believe that America's destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology," Trump added. "And that includes being the world's No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence."
The president and his Cabinet members often compare the race to lead the AI revolution to the Cold War and arm's race this country waged with the former Soviet Union after World War II. This time, however, the U.S. is competing with China.
"China and other countries are racing to catch up to America on AI, and we're not going to let them do it," Trump said on Tuesday.
"The AI revolution is upon us," Commerce Secretary Lutnick said at the event. According to a report from the Associated Press, he continued: "The Trump administration will not let us lose. We need to do clean, beautiful coal. We need to do natural gas, we need to embrace nuclear, we need to embrace it all because we have the power to do it and if we don't do it, we're fools."
Environmentalists have criticized the administration's attempts to accelerate permitting for industrial facilities by curtailing environmental regulations, such as the National Environmental Policies Act (NEPA). For more on the administration's efforts to streamline energy and environmental permitting, see March 14, 2025, article -- EPA Will Reconsider 31 Energy and Environmental Rules from Trump's Predecessors.
But those concerns were swatted away by Interior Secretary Burgum, who the New York Times quoted as saying, "This administration had identified early that there are two existential threats, and neither one of them is climate change. One is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. And then two is losing the A.I. arms race."
Commenting on the choice of Pittsburgh as the site for this summit, Commerce Secretary Lutnick said Pennsylvania has robust energy resources and power infrastructure that make it a unique location for data centers: It's the combination of technology, investment and power accessibility that makes a location key and successful."
The Keystone State is the nation's second-largest producer of natural gas, and numerous gas-powered generators are slated to be built in the state. Industrial Info is tracking planned construction of 16 gas-fired generation or cogeneration projects in Pennsylvania, worth an estimated $1.55 billion.
Blackstone's Gray said his company would look at teaming up with utilities and developers to build data centers closer to new gas plants, according to an article in The New York Times. "What makes us so excited about this area is that you can co-locate the data centers next to the source of power," he said.
Several news reports cautioned that industry analysts were skeptical of the big investment announcements Trump has touted, noting they often don't come to fruition or they involve repackaging existing plans. Several commentators to a Wall Street Journal article mentioned semiconductor manufacturer Foxconn (New Taipei City, Taiwan) in 2017 announced plans to build a large LCD manufacturing center in Wisconsin, which Trump touted and for which billions of dollars of public and private money was pledged. The company subsequently significantly scaled back those plans, however.
In a Washington Post article, Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro expressed skepticism about whether all of the pledged $90 billion in investments would materialize, vowing to a group of reporters that he would be "working to hold them to the commitment."
"There's a difference between what someone says in a press release today and when shovels go into the ground in the future," he said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
U.S. Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) convened the event. His office said that at least $90 billion of commitments have been made to build energy or AI facilities in Pennsylvania to turn that state, and the city of Pittsburgh in particular, into an AI and energy hub. The half-day event featured remarks from a who's who of federal and state officials, AI companies, financiers and energy firms.
The half-day event featured numerous representatives of the current administration, including President Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and a host of other state and local officials also spoke at the July 15 event.
They were joined by a bevy of corporate executives, including: Darren Woods, chief executive officer (CEO) at Exxon Mobil Corporation (Spring, Texas); Toby Rice, CEO at EQT Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer at Blackstone Incorporated (New York, New York); Larry Fink, CEO at BlackRock Incorporated (New York, New York); Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management (Toronto, Ontario); Mat Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (Seattle, Washington) Dario Amodei, CEO at AI firm Anthropic (San Francisco, California); and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer at Alphabet Incorporated (Mountain View, California).
Industrial Info is tracking about 28 planned artificial intelligence projects in Pennsylvania, with an aggregate value of about $10.4 billion.
The event was said to be a run-up to a White House AI action plan, scheduled for release next week. The plan reportedly will include sections of expediting permitting for energy infrastructure and power generation as well as speeding up permitting for tech infrastructure projects.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google said it would invest $25 billion into data centers needed to train AI models and related infrastructure in Pennsylvania and the surrounding region over the next two years. Private-equity firm Blackstone committed to make an investment of over $25 billion. AI startup CoreWeave (Livingston, New Jersey) announced a $6 billion investment.
Blackstone executives said their investment of more than $25 billion would "help catalyze" an additional $60 billion of energy and AI investments in Pennsylvania.
"We're thrilled to be investing behind two of our highest conviction themes ---- digital infrastructure and energy -- in a part of the country that is ideally situated to support and expand America's leading position in the AI revolution," Jon Gray, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with our partners in government, local communities, and with the people of Pennsylvania to meaningfully invest in the growth of the commonwealth's digital and energy infrastructure."
A colleague, Sean Klimczak, Blackstone's global head of infrastructure, added: "Pennsylvania is transforming into a strategic hub for AI innovation, and we're excited to work with our partners at PPL to invest in the generation needed to support this critical digital infrastructure."
Other energy companies, including EQT, ExxonMobil and FirstEnergy (Akron, Ohio), got into the act too, pledging to invest billions to build new electric generation and increase gas production in the region, which sits atop the Marcellus and Utica shales, according to the White House.
In a statement, Vincent Sorgi, president and CEO of electric utility PPL Corporation (Allentown, Pennsylvania), commented: "We're excited to leverage the powerful expertise that PPL and Blackstone Infrastructure possess to bring much-needed new dispatchable generation online in Pennsylvania to match new data center load in a way that directly supports economic development and large load customer needs, helps to mitigate rising electricity prices for energy consumers, and delivers increased value for shareowners without traditional merchant power risk."
From the speaker's podium, the president said, "Today's commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh, and I have to say, right here in the United States of America. We have the hottest country, and we're going to keep it that way." He also spoke of his desire to streamline permitting for various industrial projects across the U.S. "We believe that America's destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology," Trump added. "And that includes being the world's No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence."
The president and his Cabinet members often compare the race to lead the AI revolution to the Cold War and arm's race this country waged with the former Soviet Union after World War II. This time, however, the U.S. is competing with China.
"China and other countries are racing to catch up to America on AI, and we're not going to let them do it," Trump said on Tuesday.
"The AI revolution is upon us," Commerce Secretary Lutnick said at the event. According to a report from the Associated Press, he continued: "The Trump administration will not let us lose. We need to do clean, beautiful coal. We need to do natural gas, we need to embrace nuclear, we need to embrace it all because we have the power to do it and if we don't do it, we're fools."
Environmentalists have criticized the administration's attempts to accelerate permitting for industrial facilities by curtailing environmental regulations, such as the National Environmental Policies Act (NEPA). For more on the administration's efforts to streamline energy and environmental permitting, see March 14, 2025, article -- EPA Will Reconsider 31 Energy and Environmental Rules from Trump's Predecessors.
But those concerns were swatted away by Interior Secretary Burgum, who the New York Times quoted as saying, "This administration had identified early that there are two existential threats, and neither one of them is climate change. One is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. And then two is losing the A.I. arms race."
Commenting on the choice of Pittsburgh as the site for this summit, Commerce Secretary Lutnick said Pennsylvania has robust energy resources and power infrastructure that make it a unique location for data centers: It's the combination of technology, investment and power accessibility that makes a location key and successful."
The Keystone State is the nation's second-largest producer of natural gas, and numerous gas-powered generators are slated to be built in the state. Industrial Info is tracking planned construction of 16 gas-fired generation or cogeneration projects in Pennsylvania, worth an estimated $1.55 billion.
Blackstone's Gray said his company would look at teaming up with utilities and developers to build data centers closer to new gas plants, according to an article in The New York Times. "What makes us so excited about this area is that you can co-locate the data centers next to the source of power," he said.
Several news reports cautioned that industry analysts were skeptical of the big investment announcements Trump has touted, noting they often don't come to fruition or they involve repackaging existing plans. Several commentators to a Wall Street Journal article mentioned semiconductor manufacturer Foxconn (New Taipei City, Taiwan) in 2017 announced plans to build a large LCD manufacturing center in Wisconsin, which Trump touted and for which billions of dollars of public and private money was pledged. The company subsequently significantly scaled back those plans, however.
In a Washington Post article, Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro expressed skepticism about whether all of the pledged $90 billion in investments would materialize, vowing to a group of reporters that he would be "working to hold them to the commitment."
"There's a difference between what someone says in a press release today and when shovels go into the ground in the future," he said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
