Trump joins tech and energy executives amid AI push

PITTSBURGH: US President Donald Trump joined executives from some of the largest US tech and energy companies for a summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday as the administration prepares more measures to power the US expansion of artificial intelligence (AI).

Top economic rivals, the US and China, are locked in a technological arms race over who can dominate AI as the technology takes on increasing importance everywhere from corporate boardrooms to the battlefield.

The Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University brought tech executives and officials from top energy and tech firms, including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Exxon Mobil, to discuss how to position the US as a leader in AI.

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Trump and the summit’s host, US Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican ally from Pennsylvania, highlighted some $90 billion in artificial intelligence and energy investments in the state.

“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,” Trump told the attendees.

Big Tech is scrambling to secure enough electricity to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for its rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.

Companies began announcing their plans early on Tuesday, with Google inking a $3 billion electricity deal and CoreWeave touting a $6 billion AI data center.

Google said it secured as much as 3 gigawatts of US hydropower in a deal between the tech firm and Brookfield Asset Management that includes initial 20-year power purchase agreements for electricity generated from two facilities in Pennsylvania.

Asset management firm Blackstone’s President Jon Gray also said they will announce on Tuesday a $25 billion investment in data centers and energy infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

The CEOs that attended included Khaldoon Al-Mubarak of Abu Dhabi investment company Mubadala, Rene Haas of Arm, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Darren Woods of Exxon Mobil, Brendan Bechtel of Bechtel and Dario Amodei of Anthropic.

The White House is considering executive actions in the coming weeks to make it easier for power-generating projects to connect to the grid and also provide federal land on which to build the data centers needed to expand AI technology, Reuters previously reported.

The administration is also weighing streamlining permitting for data centers by creating a nationwide Clean Water Act permit, rather than requiring companies to seek permits on a state-by-state basis.

Trump ordered his administration in January to produce an AI Action Plan that would make “America the world capital in artificial intelligence” and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion.

That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by July 23.

Trump is set to mark that deadline with a major speech as part of an event titled “Winning the AI Race,” organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the All-In podcast, a White House official told Reuters.

US power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in numbers and size across the country.

The demand is also leading to unprecedented deals between the power industry and technology companies, including the attempted restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania between Constellation Energy and Microsoft.

The surge has led to concerns about power shortages that threaten to raise electricity bills and increase the risk of blackouts, while slowing Big Tech in its global race against countries like China to dominate AI.