With more than $110 billion of private investments into the commonwealth’s artificial intelligence, computing and energy sectors unveiled over the past three months, Pennsylvania is in position to experience substantial growth across these deeply interconnected industries, according to local experts.

In June, Amazon revealed plans to spend more than $20 billion building two new data centers in the state. In July, Blackstone announced a $25 billion investment in data center and energy infrastructure development in northeast Pennsylvania, along with a new joint venture with PPL Corporation for power generation, among other sizable investments.

According to Soundar Kumara, director of the Penn State Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Industry (AIMI), developing domestic AI capacity could offer a range of benefits in manufacturing, agriculture, health science and government, among other sectors.

In manufacturing, AI tools could improve quality control by automating fault identification and eliminating human errors in detecting minute imperfections in circuits or welded surfaces, Kumara said.

In health care, doctors could utilize AI programs to find patterns in scans that indicate a specific diagnosis or use AI to automate minor routine tests, he said.

“The efficiency of a system could be improved … and costs could be cut,” Kumara said.

These benefits could be especially impactful in smaller companies, which may not have the resources to hire enough staff to cover a range of duties that could be partially, or completely, managed by an AI system, he said.

Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to grow this industry due to its blue-collar manufacturing heritage, robust energy infrastructure and local leaders who want to further invest in the AI sector, Kumara said.

According to Kumara, Pennsylvania also has three of the leading national research centers for AI technology, including Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania.

This knowledge base, when combined with a substantial energy generation and transmission network and thousands of businesses eager to adopt AI technology could catalyze further growth in the AI industry, he said.

Akin to how coal was essential to the early railroad industry, energy infrastructure is “intrinsic” to the burgeoning AI market, Kumara said, as AI systems require an enormous amount of energy to function.

For example, a large language model-style of AI such as ChatGPT uses 10 times the amount of energy per query compared to a traditional Google search, according to Kumara.

According to FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Brian Tierney, “The electric landscape … is evolving rapidly as economic development and (AI) drive increased electricity demand. Meeting this demand while ensuring reliable energy supply requires more dispatchable energy sources and a stronger transmission infrastructure.”

FirstEnergy, which serves over 6 million customers across the Mid Atlantic region, is investing more than $28 billion through 2029 to modernize and strengthen energy distribution systems, Tierney said in a news release.

One of the ways Penn State is positioning itself to be a leader in this emerging sector is by developing a digital counterpart to its Extension program, which offers free resources and technical expertise to farmers across the commonwealth, according to Penn State professor Guido Cervone.

Cervone, director of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), said that while his colleagues are still in the early brainstorming stage of this concept, he hopes that the final program will provide a range of low-cost computational capacity, professional expertise and AI tools in service of a similar public-outreach mission.

Penn State is currently seeking licensure from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to permit Westinghouse Electric Co. to install an eVinci micro nuclear reactor at a new research facility on campus, with a portion of its approximate five megawatt output dedicated to supplying the university’s growing data center and AI infrastructure, Cervone said.

Nuclear is among the best options for enabling the increased energy consumption needs of AI systems, Cervone said, as its comparably lower carbon footprint results in less environmental impact.

Cervone is optimistic about the future of the Pennsylvania AI industry, as the commonwealth already has “excellence in AI and computing expertise, excellence in energy infrastructure and excellence in government support.”

That means “we already have the ingredients that are required,” he said.

Government support

Elected officials at all levels of government have identified AI technology as a potential path to the future.

In his July 2025 “America’s AI Action Plan” proclamation, President Donald Trump calls AI “a new frontier of scientific discovery.”

“Breakthroughs in these fields have the potential to reshape the global balance of power, spark entirely new industries, and revolutionize the way we live and work … it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance,” Trump said in the plan.

At the state level, Shapiro signed an executive order in September 2023 that established standards for civil servants’ use of AI, engaged industry partners and created a Generative AI Governing Board, which Kumara has advised through his work at AIMI.

Shapiro also greenlit a pilot program in early 2024 that saw 175 state employees across 14 different agencies use ChatGPT Enterprise to realize an average of 95 minutes per day of time savings in writing, research, summarization, and IT support while using the program.

“Pennsylvania is leading the way in responsibly integrating AI into government by giving Commonwealth employees access to tools that enhance efficiency while ensuring people remain at the center of decision-making,” Shapiro said while announcing the results of the pilot program, noting that AI will never replace human workers, but will equip them with the best tools available.

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.