Trump Touts $92 Billion AI, Energy Projects in Key Swing State

Data centers powering artificial intelligence are putting pressure on power grids. (Courtesy Google)

Google and Blackstone announced major investments in artificial-intelligence infrastructure Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. Both companies pledged $25 billion each.

Other investments in the state include $15 billion in financing led by Knighthead Capital Management for a natural-gas powered data center in Indiana County in partnership with EQT Corp. and $6 billion from AI cloud company CoreWeave for “a new, state-of-the-art data center” in Lancaster, Pa.

President Donald Trump said there were more than $92 billion in new investments on what he called a “triumphant day” for the people of Pennsylvania. Some $56 billion of that is for energy infrastructure with the rest for AI data centers.

“Remaining the world’s leader in AI will require a tremendous amount of energy,” Trump said.

Google’s $25 billion investment will go toward data center and AI infrastructure across the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland region over the next two years. It has also agreed on a framework deal with Brookfield Asset Management and Brookfield Renewable to deliver up to 3,000 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity. The first contracts are worth more than $3 billion of power and 670 megawatts of capacity.

Blackstone, meanwhile, is putting its $25 billion toward building data centers in Northeast Pennsylvania and generation plants for natural gas to power data centers. It has formed a joined venture with utility firm PPL to invest in the new plants. Construction is expected to start by the end of 2028 and take 10 years.

“What makes us so excited about this area is the idea that you can co-locate the data centers directly next to the source of power,” Blackstone President and COO Jon Gray said. “And that’s really the special sauce here.”

Meanwhile, AI cloud company CoreWeave said it would commit “more than” $6 billion to equip a new data center in Lancaster “to power the most cutting-edge AI use cases.” The initial 100-megawatt data center has the potential to expand to 300 megawatts.

Amazon announced last month that it planned to invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand its data center infrastructure for AI and cloud computing technologies.

Shares of Google-parent Alphabet closed mostly flat Tuesday, CoreWeave rose 6%, and Blackstone was down more than 2%.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com and Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com