Trump touts $90B in energy, AI deals announced during Pittsburgh summit

Tech and energy investors announced a flurry of multibillion-dollar development deals across the state Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University.

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, serving as host of the inaugural summit, said the deals — totaling more than $90 billion combined — will create tens of thousands of jobs and position Pennsylvania as a leading hub for the energy and artificial intelligence industries.

“As the nation’s second-largest energy producer and a global nuclear power leader, Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to deliver the abundant, affordable energy that the growing AI and advanced manufacturing sectors demand,” said McCormick, a Republican from Pittsburgh.

President Donald Trump, who took the stage just after 3:30 p.m., said the announced deals represent “the largest package of investments in the history of the commonwealth, and it’s not even close.”

“This is a really triumphant day for the people of the commonwealth and for the United States of America. We’re doing things that nobody ever thought possible,” the president added.

Check out @TribLIVE’s new TikTok from the summit… more on the wayhttps://t.co/hjA09HieBK

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) July 15, 2025

The invite-only summit featured a who’s-who list of political luminaries and business leaders, headlined by President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro. Officials said the summit offered an opportunity to foster collaboration between the state’s well-established energy sector and its emergent technology and artificial intelligence companies, which require huge amounts of electricity.

The program included a series of panels on topics including “The AI Race and How to Win It,” “The Case for Pennsylvania: Opportunities and Challenges,” “Investing Big in Pennsylvania” and “Powering the AI Revolution.”

“I am proud to partner with President Trump and the business leaders here today to drive a new era of industrial growth that helps make America energy dominant while creating jobs and opportunities for working families across Pennsylvania,” McCormick said in his remarks to open the summit.

During panel discussions, multiple speakers described developing artificial intelligence and other forms of high technology as a “war” or “race” against China. World War II analogies were common, harkening back to Pittsburgh’s crucial role in supplying steel for the Allied forces.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made clear his belief that climate should not be a consideration when trying to expand power-hungry data centers and other tech infrastructure.

“The number one investor in the environmental narrative is China,” Lutnick said. “We have Alaska, we have shale, we have oil, we have natural gas. We have the capacity to drive the AI revolution in America. China does not.”

Panelists also promoted the skilled trades, which will be required to build tech infrastructure and are also viewed as more immune to automation than much white-collar work.

“We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to code,” said Mike Rowe, host of the television show “Dirty Jobs” and an advocate for skilled labor. “Well, AI is coming for the coders. They’re not coming for the welders.”

Shapiro, the Democratic governor from Montgomery County, stood out on a guest list filled with Republicans serving at the state and federal level and business leaders. The governor has fashioned himself as a bipartisan problem solver on business issues and an “all of the above” advocate on energy production.

While sitting across from the Republican McCormick during a panel discussion, Shapiro said they both know “how critically important it is to grow our economy in Pennsylvania.”

One key point of agreement between the elected officials is speeding up project permitting. Shapiro signed an executive order last year to fast-track some of the largest proposals, including for natural resource extraction and energy production.

Brendan Bechtel, CEO of construction giant Bechtel, said “bipartisan, durable permit reform” is also needed at the federal level. He believes the best time to get that done will be between when Congress reconvenes from summer recess in August and the end of the year.

“If it doesn’t happen then, it’s not going to happen for another generation,” Bechtel said.

Among the blockbuster plans announced Tuesday, Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative investment firm with more than $1 trillion in assets under management, announced a $25 billion investment to develop data centers and natural gas plants in Northeast Pennsylvania, along with a joint venture with PPL Corporation for power generation.

The investment is expected to create 6,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs, McCormick’s office said.

“What we’re thinking about and what makes us so excited about the area is the idea you can co-locate the data centers right next to the source of power,” Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said. “And that’s really the special sauce here.”

The tech giant Google announced a $3 billion deal with Brookfield Asset Management to modernize two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania, resulting in 670 megawatts of power generation to support the state.

Additionally, Google said it is investing more than $25 billion in data center and AI infrastructure across the PJM power grid region, which includes all of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio and parts of Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.

Google said it also is launching AI Works for America, starting with AI Works for Pennsylvania, to train workers and small businesses on what it called essential AI skills.

“Google’s investments announced today will increase energy abundance and empower Americans with the skills needed to thrive in the AI era,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer for Google and its parent holding company, Alphabet Inc.

McCormick’s office said Homer City Redevelopment Group has reached an agreement in principle to buy $15 billion of natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to support over 4 gigawatts of power generation at a proposed redevelopment site in Indiana County.

TribLive reported Tuesday that developers will present plans Wednesday for a $10 billion, 3,200-acre, natural-­gas power plant at the Homer City site.

The former Homer City Generating Station, once a coal-fired plant, is being proposed to provide the electricity required for AI and high-performance computing.

Not all on board

The summit and, in particular, Trump’s involvement in it drew some critics.

More than 100 protesters, many chanting and holding signs criticizing the president, walked early Tuesday afternoon from Schenley Plaza to South Craig Street and Forbes Avenue in the center of Pittsburgh’s university district.

Authorities shut down Forbes to traffic in both directions for several blocks, stretching from South Craig to around Morewood Avenue.

By mid-afternoon, the crowd of protesters had thinned out to less than half the size. Roughly an equal number of police officers, all wearing riot gear, lined up, with about two dozen from the Allegheny County Police Department blocking South Craig and another two dozen from Pittsburgh standing across Forbes.

Behind the city officers on Forbes, there were a half-dozen county police on horseback as well as a city police wagon.

By 3 p.m., the county officers had departed and the number of protesters had dwindled to about a dozen.

The demonstrations come after weeks of complaints from CMU students, faculty and other members of the campus community, who say the university is effectively cosigning the administration’s policies by inviting several key members to campus.

Specifically, they’ve cited Trump’s efforts to slash federal research funding, deport foreign-born students and marginalize transgender and gender nonconforming individuals.

Staff writers Justin Vellucci and Megan Trotter contributed.