Trump, McCormick to tout $70B in energy, AI investments across Pa. in CMU event

More than $70 billion worth of investments into Pennsylvania’s energy and artificial intelligence sectors will be highlighted during a summit Tuesday at Carnegie Mellon University, with industry leaders and politicians including President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro participating.

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a lead organizer for the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, took to social media Monday to tout the planned infusion of cash, saying it would be “just the beginning” of the state dominating in these crucial industries.

In a recent Fox News appearance, Pennsylvania’s junior senator, a Republican who lives in Pittsburgh, claimed the investments will create tens of thousands of jobs.

Alongside Trump, Shapiro and McCormick, the invitation-only event will feature multiple Trump Cabinet members and Western Pennsylvania business leaders such as Toby Rice of natural gas producer EQT, Dario Amodei of AI developer Anthropic and Dan Sumner of Westinghouse Electric Co.

McCormick has said 60 energy and tech CEOs will be in attendance, without making public the official list.

Axios reported that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Open AI’s Sam Altman and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella will be some of the prominent tech moguls there. Several oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, are sending their CEOs, per Axios.

Mike Rowe, best known as host of the TV series “Dirty Jobs” and a prominent Trump backer and advocate for the trades, announced he’ll be making an appearance, too.

The daylong summit will focus on the intersection between artificial intelligence, a field where Western Pennsylvania is a growing player, and the region’s traditionally strong energy sector.

It takes massive data centers to power artificial intelligence programs and, with that, massive amounts of electricity. Pennsylvania’s vast natural gas reserves have proved especially attractive to data-center developers, with several projects recently completed or in the works.

“The natural gas industry has been talking about this opportunity for a long time,” said Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. “And the reason is we have this resource right under our feet.”

The fossil fuel industry factors heavily into Trump and McCormick’s vision for satiating data centers, which the Department of Energy projects will use 12% of the country’s electricity by 2028. The Trump administration has slammed renewables amid its push for “energy dominance,” while McCormick said in his Fox News appearance the summit will reflect those policies in action.

Business boosters also point to the region’s prestigious research institutions, led by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, and its supply of skilled workers as reasons why it could capitalize on emergent tech sectors.

The event has its detractors. Carnegie Mellon students, faculty and other members of the campus community have signed a letter to university administrators demanding the summit be moved off campus amid moves by the Trump administration to slash federal research funding and revoke visas for international students.

These actions, the letter states, “directly undermine CMU community members’ safety, along with the values of higher education, scientific research and democratic governance, regardless of party affiliation.”

Several groups are planning off-campus protests. Indivisible, Stand Up for Science, Sunrise Movement and ACT UP are organizing protests and marches in Oakland and Shadyside throughout the day. Traffic disruptions are expected.

Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian has welcomed the summit as an opportunity to highlight the university’s role within the regional ecosystem of AI, robotics and energy companies.

Audrey Russo, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, said few events in the city have ever generated this much buzz. Ones that have, like the G-20 international forum in 2009, used Pittsburgh as a backdrop rather than a focal point.

“We do what we can when we have those kinds of those kinds of opportunities showcasing Pittsburgh,” Russo said. “But what’s really special about (the summit), it’s the announcement of investments in Pittsburgh, across Pennsylvania.”