Billions of dollars in energy and technology investment are set to pour into Pennsylvania, the US Mid-Atlantic state, following a high-profile summit in Pittsburgh attended by US President Donald Trump.
The summit provided details of specific investments, complementing the previously announced artificial intelligence and new tech strategic push. Overall, around $90bn-worth of projects are in the pipeline.
What was once Pennsylvania’s largest coat plant, for example, is set to be converted into a $10bn natural gas-powered data centre. Homer City Generating Station will have seven gas turbines on site powering up to 4.5GW of electricity.
Google and Blackstone are both spending around $25bn on data centre infrastructure – the latter also includes natural gas plant spend – and CoreWeave is investing $6bn.
Adopting a characteristically bullish tone, President Trump said the US “was not catching China, but leading” and on several occasions used the forum to denigrate clean energy – or the “new green scam” as he called it – that was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s agenda.
But Trump said to become the “world leader in AI” would require an enormous increase in energy production.
“The investments being announced include more than $56bn in new energy infrastructure and there will a massive build-out of physical infrastructure,” he said. “A lot more projects will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Senator Dave McCormick said Pennsylvania’s appeal lies in its natural gas reserves, abundant fresh water, installed base of nuclear power, tech infrastructure and skilled trades. He said the construction work related to the projects would make “a big difference” to the state’s communities.
Research consultancy Wood Mackenzie notes that when President Trump took office in January one of his key themes was “unleashing American energy”, with the goal of increasing investment, creating jobs and cutting prices.
“It is clear that the [Big Beautiful] bill he has just signed into law will have the effect of curbing investment in some energy technologies, particularly wind and solar. As US electricity demand grows, it will be critical for investment in other technologies to rise to fill the gap.”