Amazon will spend $20 billion to build two data centers in Pennsylvania

Amazon plans to invest at least $20 billion in the construction of multiple data center complexes in Pennsylvania, marking what officials called the largest private-sector investment in the state’s history.

The effort’s initial two centers are slated to be constructed on the site of a former steel mill in Bucks County, and alongside a nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Monday. Known as “innovation campuses,” the data centers will support Amazon’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence efforts, the recent rapid rise of which has created intense demand for power and infrastructure.

Amazon’s Pennsylvania data centers are expected to serve as the “backbone for America’s AI infrastructure,” and help maintain the country’s role as the global leader of that technology’s development, Amazon Web Services vice president of global data centers Kevin Miller said Monday.

“Thanks to Amazon, the future of AI is going to run right here through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.

The investment is expected to create at least 1,250 permanent jobs, as well as thousands of construction jobs as the centers are being built. Monday’s announcement of the project came following about 20 months of negotiations, and talks remain ongoing for potential additional centers, Shapiro said.

The first two data centers are slated to be built in Falls Township and Salem Township. The Falls Township center will be constructed at the Keystone Trade Center on a property formerly owned by U.S. Steel that Shapiro said was once one of the largest steel mills in the world. Falls Township approved plans for the development of 2 million square feet of “digital infrastructure campus” in March, township officials said in a statement.

“Falls Township is committed to seeing the former U.S. Steel property restored to its heyday as a major employer in the community,” Falls Township board of supervisors Chairman Jeff Dence said. “This commitment from Amazon positions the township well for an influx of high-paying jobs.”

The other initial center is slated to be built alongside the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power plant in Salem Township, Luzerne County. Talen Energy, the plant’s majority owner, announced its deal with Amazon last year to provide 960 megawatts of power to the center, or roughly enough power for more than 500,000 homes.

The deal, referred to as a “behind the meter” connection, drew scrutiny from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and raised questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers would leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid. The commission initially blocked the deal on procedural grounds, but proceedings in the matter remain ongoing.

Amazon on Monday also announced plans to partner with Pennsylvania schools and worker organizations to create workforce training programs. Among those planned efforts are programs that include training for data center technicians, workshops for fiber optics fusion splicing certificates, and STEM education for K-12 schools, Miller said.

Local officials lauded Amazon’s investment in Pennsylvania Monday, with Sen. Dave McCormick calling the effort “just the beginning.”

“Our state’s vast energy resources, combined with our skilled workforce, plentiful water, proximity to major population centers, and elite research institutions, make Pennsylvania a perfect base to power America’s innovative technological future through data centers like these,” McCormick said.

Shapiro likewise touted Pennsylvania’s positioning to serve as a future hot spot for the future of AI and cloud computing. Currently, he said, the United States is engaged in a race for AI dominance with China, and that battle is “yet another national security issue that Pennsylvania can lead on.”

“I sure as hell think those technologies should be developed by the hands of a Pennsylvania worker here in the United States of America, not in communist China,” Shapiro said.

Amazon is not the only large corporation to come to Pennsylvania with massive data center plans recently. Last year, Microsoft announced a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy Corp. to purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1, which was disconnected from the power grid in 2019 amid financial troubles. That unit was not involved in the 1979 partial meltdown of the nearby Three Mile Island Unit 2, and is expected to go back online in 2028 and supply energy to several Microsoft data centers.

And earlier this year, owners of the former Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County said they would transform that facility into a $10 billion natural gas-powered data center campus focused on AI and cloud computing. The site once served as the state’s largest coal-fired power plant, and shut down in 2023 after more than a half-century of service. Its rebirth as a data center, however, could come as soon as 2027.

This article includes information from The Associated Press.