(Bloomberg) —
President Donald Trump hailed more than $92 billion in investments in artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure during a visit to Pennsylvania, highlighting his efforts to bolster US competitiveness in the AI field.
“Today’s commitments are ensuring 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,” Trump said on Tuesday, July 15, at the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University.
The investments from multiple companies include new data centers, power generation and grid infrastructure upgrades, along with AI training and apprenticeships, highlighting the administration’s broad approach to securing US dominance over China in the rapidly developing sector. Trump said some of the companies already had received permits and some facilities were under construction.
Among the investments, Blackstone Inc. pledged more than $25 billion to bankroll new data centers and energy infrastructure. QTS, the data center business it owns, has secured sites for developments in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Blackstone also formed a joint venture with utility PPL Corp. to construct and run gas-fired power plants to meet data centers’ enormous electricity needs.
“What makes us so excited about this area is that you can co-locate the data centers next to the source of power,” Blackstone President Jon Gray said at the event. “The special sauce here is putting these together, because building transmission lines, pipelines — that’s really difficult.”
Blackstone has invested heavily in data center growth. It bought QTS in 2021 in a $10 billion deal. Since then, the company has grown into a $60 billion powerhouse, making it one of Blackstone’s best bets to date.
CoreWeave Inc., a provider of AI computing power, plans to invest as much as $6 billion to set up a data center that will be equipped with Nvidia Corp. chips. Meta Platforms Inc., meanwhile, announced $2.5 million as part of a program to support startups in rural communities and is also providing training for small businesses to better harness community resources.
Trump also plans to deliver a major address on AI as his administration puts the final touches on an action plan he ordered. The president is expected to sign an executive order after the plan is released to implement its policies, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Energy Demands
Boosting energy production is also a critical component of Trump’s AI push and one he highlighted.
“We just started, but we’re going to actually end up doing more than them and it’s going to be done privately, and you can own your own electric plants,” Trump said, citing China’s efforts to ramp up its own power generation.
Google has announced a deal to spend more than $3 billion to buy power for its data centers from Brookfield Asset Management’s hydroelectric plants in an agreement dubbed the world’s largest corporate clean power deal for hydroelectricity.
GE Vernova Inc., meanwhile, announced plans to add 250 new jobs at a factory in Pennsylvania to manufacture products needed to boost electric-grid reliability. The company now plans to invest up to $100 million in Pennsylvania over the next two years, adding about 700 new jobs in factories across the state, it said.
FirstEnergy Corp. will invest $15 billion to expand power distribution and strengthen grid infrastructure in Pennsylvania counties.
Trump has stressed the importance of boosting coal-fired, natural gas and nuclear energy production to ensure that the US has enough power to run energy-hungry AI data centers. Administration officials have argued that adequate electricity supply is intertwined with national security, essential to keeping the US ahead of global competitors in the AI race.
By 2035, data centers are projected to account for 8.6% of all US electricity demand, more than double their 3.5% share today, according to data from Bloomberg NEF. The US Energy Department has already used emergency authority to keep two-power plants that were slated to close online, and has signaled additional federal intervention may be forthcoming.
The event, aimed at showcasing one of his administration’s top priorities, was hosted by Republican Senator David McCormick and drew a number of prominent industry executives, including CEOs Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Larry Fink of Blackrock Inc., ExxonMobil Corp.’s Darren Woods, Palantir Technologies Inc.’s Alex Karp and Nir Bar Dea of Bridgewater Associates LP as well as Ruth Porat, the president of Alphabet Inc., according to McCormick’s office.
Trump has sought to draw on private-sector investments, ease regulations and accelerate the permit process for new projects to boost American innovation in AI. Earlier this year, Trump secured a $100 billion investment in AI data centers, hailing a joint venture involving SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI Inc., and Oracle Corp.
The administration has also eased trade curbs on some advanced AI chips. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said they plan to resume the sale of some AI chips in China after securing US government assurances that the transactions would be approved, a reversal from Trump’s earlier stance seeking to limit Beijing’s AI ambitions.
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