Trump joins tech and energy executives amid AI push
Top economic rivals, the U.S. 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 is expected to bring tech executives and officials from top energy and tech firms, including Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and Exxon Mobil, to discuss how to position the U.S. as a leader in AI.
Trump will use the summit, arranged by U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican ally from Pennsylvania, to announce about $90 billion in artificial intelligence and energy investments in the state. McCormick said in his introductory remarks "the stakes couldn't be higher," even as Nvidia and AMD prepared to resume selling their chips to U.S. rival China.
'If the United States does not lead this revolution on our own terms, we will hand control of our infrastructure, our data, our leadership and our way of life to the Chinese Communist Party,' he said.
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 U.S. 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 expected to attend include 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,' organised by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the All-In podcast, a White House official told Reuters.
U.S. 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.
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