National and Pennsylvania Context
National Context: Where Energy, Data Centers, and AI Now Intersect
Understanding the national context is essential because the AI revolution is reshaping the technological and economic landscape at unprecedented speed. It is driving the current surge in infrastructure demand, massive data processing needs, and energy requirements. It is laying the long-term foundation for the future economy. Federal priorities, private capital, and rapid technology advancement are converging in ways that will define where value is created and who leads in the decades ahead. By seeing clearly how this fast-moving, high-stakes environment is unfolding, Pennsylvania can anchor its role in the next era of economic growth.
The AI Infrastructure Decade
The U.S. has entered an “AI infrastructure decade,” with federal policy and private capital moving together to build compute power at unprecedented scale. At the federal level today, America’s AI Action Plan puts compute infrastructure, connectivity, power, and talent on par with technology leadership itself, signaling fewer bottlenecks and faster permitting for AI-related build-outs across agencies and markets.1,2 That intent meets a historic wave of capital investment. Consultancies and banks now estimate trillion-dollar deployments into data centers through 2030, with persistent constraints around interconnection capacity, supply chain limitations, and skilled labor.3,4
Increasing Energy Demand & Power Constraints
Power is the primary binding constraint. Grid planners in PJM and other regions continue to revise load forecasts upward as AI-ready campuses compress multi-hundred-MW requirements into short timelines. PJM’s 2025 forecast now includes new reporting for adjustments to peak electricity demand that are not a part of its usual models, and it points to big changes in the grid, lifting up specifically the growing impact of AI.5,6 Independent analyses suggest data-center electricity demand could increase 50% by 2027 and as much as 165% by 2030 globally, driven by AI training and inference. Hyperscale and colocation developers are experimenting with on-site and behind-the-meter generation to de-risk interconnection queues and speed time-to-power.4,7 Meanwhile, European and U.S. think tanks estimate AI workloads already account for a meaningful share of data-center consumption and could double that share by 2030, evidence that AI adoption is real, not cyclical.8 Energy readiness is the national bottleneck and therefore why Pennsylvania’s ability to provide scalable, dispatchable power with speed and reliability will define its success in attracting AI and data center investment.
Urgency to Act: Seizing the Window of Opportunity
Given the rapid pace of change, the economic, community and societal impacts of energy demand, data center expansions, and AI are only beginning to become visible. For example, Brookings urges spreading AI’s benefits beyond a handful of “superstar” metros, emphasizing readiness (talent, research, industry adoption) as the determinant of who captures value from the build-out. That logic increasingly applies to energy readiness as well: places able to marry compute readiness with reliable power and pragmatic siting will out-compete.9
The U.S. is rapidly accelerating in the AI race, but realizing its full potential will depend on expanding infrastructure through practical, community-driven partnerships among utilities, regulators, developers, and local leaders. For states and regions, the opportunity window is open now; the risk is letting permitting cycles and grid queues slip while capital redeploys to faster-moving peers.3
Pennsylvania in the Frame: Strengths to Win and Timing Matters
Pennsylvania sits at a powerful crossroads in the AI era, with strategic assets that align directly with what the next generation of AI-driven industries require. A deep bench of R1 research universities, and assets such as the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, anchor a pipeline of talent and R&D that few states can match. Pennsylvania’s “all-of-the-above” energy strength, from abundant natural gas to nuclear, renewables, and robust grid infrastructure, positions the commonwealth to deliver both reliable power and a credible low-carbon path forward.
Talent depth adds another dimension with considerable potential: a solid community college and technical school network, union partnerships, and training programs could be leveraged to equip Pennsylvanians for the specialized demands of high-density, advanced computing operations. Geographically, our central position in the PJM grid means we are well-placed to integrate regional transmission and meet the fast-growing energy needs of AI infrastructure without depending solely on distant generation sources.
Pockets of momentum are building. Regional initiatives are connecting universities, industry leaders, and government in ways that signal readiness and adaptability to national investors. Data center activity is expanding, with developers exploring conversions of legacy energy and manufacturing sites into AI-ready campuses. At the same time, PJM’s evolving load forecasts now explicitly recognize AI as a structural driver of future demand, underscoring both the opportunity and the urgency for Pennsylvania to stake its claim.
Pennsylvania’s opportunity is significant, but it is complex. Competing in the AI race will require navigating complex, locally driven land development and permitting, aligning diverse stakeholders, and making hard, time-sensitive decisions. In a transformation moving at AI speed, hesitation or fragmented action risks ceding advantage to faster-moving states. Balancing community interests, environmental stewardship, and long-term economic goals will demand disciplined, transparent choices, acting with urgency to strengthen the Commonwealth’s competitiveness for the future.
1 United States, Executive Office of the President. America’s AI Action Plan. The White House, July 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf
2 “A New Era for U.S. AI Policy: How America’s AI Action Plan Will Shape Industry and Government.” Consumer Finance Monitor, 28 July 2025, https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2025/07/28/a-new-era-for-u-s-ai-policy-how-americas-ai-action-plan-will-shape-industry-and-government/
3 Breaking Barriers to Data Center Growth. Boston Consulting Group, 2025, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2025/breaking-barriers-data-center-growth
4 AI to Drive 165% Increase in Data Center Power Demand by 2030. Goldman Sachs, 2025, https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/ai-to-drive-165-increase-in-data-center-power-demand-by-2030
5 PJM Interconnection. 2025 Load Report. PJM, 2025, https://www.pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/library/reports-notices/load-forecast/2025-load-report.pdf
6 PJM Interconnection. Load Forecasting Supplement and 2025 PJM Load Forecast Report. PJM, 2025, https://pjm.my.site.com/publicknowledge/s/article/Load-Forecasting-Supplement-and-2025-PJM-Load-Forecast-Report
7 “Data Centers Bypassing the Grid to Obtain the Power They Need.” Data Center Knowledge, 2025, https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/energy-power-supply/data-centers-bypassing-the-grid-to-obtain-the-power-they-need
8 Buffard-Rochegonde, Philippe. Artificial Intelligence, Data Centers, and Energy: Understanding the Challenges. Institut Français des Relations Internationales (Ifri), Feb. 2025, https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/ifri_buffard-rochegonde_ai_data_centers_energy_2025_2.pdf
9 Muro, Mark, and Sifan Liu. “Mapping the AI Economy: Which Regions Are Ready for the Next Technology Leap?” Brookings, 2025, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mapping-the-ai-economy-which-regions-are-ready-for-the-next-technology-leap/