President Trump and many leaders of the country’s largest technology and energy companies announced more than $90 billion in new investments in the state on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump, who spoke for about 30 minutes during a roundtable discussion at the Inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, said 20 “leading technology and energy companies” will invest in Pennsylvania to develop a new artificial intelligence economy, capitalizing on Pennsylvania’s technology and energy assets.
Among the projects will be the construction of data centers to help provide the enormous amounts of energy needed to power AI.
“We’re back in Pittsburgh to announce the largest package of investments in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday.
The event was hosted by Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, who said the Pittsburgh region is uniquely positioned to marry its technological know-how with its vast energy resources in natural gas and nuclear to create a new AI economy here.
“Our vision for this event came from the realization of the crucial link between artificial intelligence and energy, but never before have the leaders of all those companies, as well as investors, come together,” McCormick said on Tuesday.
The event comes shortly after Amazon’s announcement of a $20 billion investment in data centers across Pennsylvania, the largest economic development project in the state’s history, and a $14 billion partnership between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel to boost domestic steel production and protect thousands of jobs.
Major political and industry leaders will be in Pittsburgh
Several of the president’s Cabinet members joined him at the summit.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks were among Trump administration officials listed as summit participants.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was also in attendance. He is participating in a panel about major investments in Pennsylvania, moderated by Penn State University President Dr. Neeli Bendapudi.
Industry leaders like Alphabet President and CEO Ruth Porat, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Blackstone President and CEO Jon Gray, Gecko Robotics Founder and CEO Jake Loosararian, EQT President and CEO Toby Rice, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman were all listed as panel participants, as well.
Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh receives pushback
Mr. Trump’s visit was not without pushback, as evidenced on CMU’s campus, where signs painted with the words “protest the summit” could be seen on The Fence.
That sentiment on the CMU Fence was also posted on social media to, in the words of activists, “call on students and the Pittsburgh community to stand against fossil fuels, AI for surveillance, and authoritarianism.”
Mike Darnay is a digital producer and photojournalist at CBS Pittsburgh. Mike has also written and produced content for Vox Media and the Mon Valley Independent.
He often covers overnight breaking news, the Pittsburgh Steelers and high school sports.
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