PITTSBURGH — President Donald J. Trump joined some of the world’s leading technology and energy leaders at Carnegie Melon University on Tuesday, announcing what he said would amount to billions in planned projects for Pennsylvania.

Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., who convened the summit, put the total investment at north of $90 billion spanning about 20 projects, which he predicted would bring in “tens of thousands of jobs” in the coming years as companies embrace artificial intelligence.

“The energy and AI crossroads is Pennsylvania,” McCormick said at the event. “We are uniquely positioned to be a leader … the nation’s future depends on us being able to lead, and the people in this room are part of the answer.”

The event was lauded a first-of-its kind convention that drew international press attention as throughout the day CEOs, industry experts and lawmakers made the case for investing in Pennsylvania.

Both McCormick, the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, a board member at Meta and former Goldman Sachs partner, have an extensive network which they tapped into to arrange the summit and some of the deals.

Pennsylvania is often cited as a prime location for the AI revolution given its abundant energy resources, skilled workforce supported by numerous higher education institutions, and proximity to population centers.

The summit was headlined by the roundtable with the president, whose visit marked a little more than one year since an assassin attempted to take his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be design built and made in Pennsylvania, right here in Pittsburgh and right here in the USA,” Trump said, calling it a “triumphant day” for the state.

Trump spoke for about 30 minutes on a stage stage flanked by two huge screens reading “The Golden Age of Energy Dominance is Here,” in between a slide show of Punxsutawney Phil, Penn State wrestlers and skyline shots of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

He gave wide-ranging remarks, celebrating the recent Nippon Steel deal along with the passage of the budget reconciliation bill, and criticizing the two Republicans who voted against it.

It remains to be seen if the announcements will deliver on the significant investment and job growth pledged Tuesday but the event was a remarkable gathering of hundreds of powerful investors and data and energy and artificial intelligence contractors from around the world.

In his introduction McCormick noted just three investors in the crowd together had the power to make spending decisions on a collective $3 trillion in capital.

“I’m eager to see how much of that money we can bring to Pennsylvania,” McCormick said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, the state’s Democratic governor, participated in a panel at the summit and lauded McCormick’s work pulling it together. Asked in an interview later if he was confident all of the deals would come through, he said his office would work with the companies in hopes that they will.

“Obviously, there’s a difference between what someone says in a press release today, and when shovels go in the ground in the future,” Shapiro said. “I want to see all of these dollars come in to Pennsylvania.”

“It’s going to be important for them to figure out a way to go from a press release today to actual job creation tomorrow,” said the Democratic governor who is widely seen as a potential contender for the White House in 2028.

In between panels held inside a packed auditorium, hundreds of participants weaved around a labyrinth of company display stands, advertising everything from AI-powered HVAC systems, self driving freight software and plastics 10,000 times thinner than hair.

A leopard-spotted robot dog motored around the atrium of the university greeting attendees.

$90 billion in investments broken down

The projects promoted Tuesday range in size and scope — and many had been in development for months or even years. Most are in Western Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania.

They include natural gas, hydro-power, and nuclear projects, no solar or wind, and none of the oil and coal projects Trump has vowed to revive. That was a pledge he made again on Tuesday calling it “clean beautiful coal.”

Investors attending the summit hailed from around the world, many with longstanding ties to Pennsylvania —though only one large Philadelphia-area facility was on the list of planned projects. Constellation Energy’s planned $2.4 billion expansion of the uranium-powered Limerick nuclear station, was on the list. The company proposes adding about 15 percent to the plant’s capacity, enough to power 300,000 homes.

Some of the specific investment deals have been reported and in the works for many months, others were first revealed at the summit.

- Blackstone, the biggest investment company in the country, announced a $25 billion investment to build data centers in Northeast Pennsylvania and separately will partner with PPLC to build several natural gas generation plants to power those centers.

“You can co-locate the data centers directly next to the source of power. That’s the special sauce. Being able to put these things together,” the company CEO, Gray said at the summit. “Doing two in one place, that’s the advantage here. Gray said the project would mean 6,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs.

—First Energy, an electric utility company, said it will invest $15 billion to expand power distribution, strengthen grid infrastructure, and operate the enhanced grid, supporting 56 of the 67 Pennsylvania counties. The announcement touts a partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to expand apprenticeship programs.

—CoreWeave, a cloud computing startup will spend $6 billion to develop a 300-megawatt data center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The center is expected to create 600 new construction jobs and 175 full-time operational jobs.

CoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator said in an interview with the Inquirer that the center will be the cornerstone of the company’s mid-Atlantic strategy. It had been in the works for about four years as the company started rapidly expanding, he said. He called Pennsylvania unique in its availability of energy resources and existing infrastructure within the PGM power grid.

—Capital Power, a Canadian company announced the purchase of the Hummel Station in Shamokin Dam that will amount to about $4 billion over three years. The station is the former site of the Sunbury Coal Plant and transitioned from coal fire to gas fired. Capital Power’s CEO Avik Dey told the Inquirer Pennsylvania was an exciting

“There’s a long industrial history here in Pennsylvania that supports industrial sites and jobs and businesses,” Dey told the Inquirer in an interview between panels. He cited the Marcellus Shale “One of the critical pieces to growing gas fire generation is having proven reliable and long term gas supply. And then, you know, lastly, the appetite for growth in Pennsylvania, you know, the support is here for new investment.”

Attending the conference were top officers from Amazon and Google, who are building billion-dollar data projects around the state. Also attending were leaders of the national investment funds from Abu Dhabi and Singapore, along with Canada’s CPP investment fund, which is a major investor in Bryn Mawr-based private-water-company giant Aqua America.

Nir Bar Da, McCormick’s successor as CEO of hedge fund giant Bridgewater, was on the attendance list, along with Central High and Haverford College grad Alan Karp, who runs Palantir, Peter Thiel’s surveillance tech company.

‘Energy dominance doesn’t have a political affiliation’

The summit included appearances from Trump cabinet members and other high-level officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

But it also drew Pennsylvania’s two most prominent Democrats. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., participated in an event Monday evening and Shapiro attended the Summit Tuesday, but both had left by the time Trump addressed the summit.

“AI and energy dominance doesn’t have a political affiliation,” McCormick said in his introduction of the summit. “In Pennsylvania, we’re coming together to try to ensure we remain at the forefront of what’s going on.”

Gray, the CEO of Blackstone, said having support from both sides of the aisle helped sell him on coming into Pennsylvania.

“In many states it’s really tough. You can’t get folks on both sides of the aisle,” he said.

Both McCormick and Shapiro agreed that to attract development in the competitive and fast-paced area of AI and energy, working together and cutting out as much red tape, was essential.

There were subtle moments of disagreement.

A small gathering of students protested Trump’s attendance at the summit on campus during the day. Carnegie Melon University President Farnam Jahanian, lauded the event and the importance of training an AI workforce.

However, he also added: “We also need immigration policies that allow us to recruit the best and the brightest.”

And in an interview with reporters after his panel, Shapiro criticized Trump’s recent budget reconciliation package, which he said arguably made certain types of deals harder in the state due to a reduction in energy tax credits.

“It’s somewhat ironic that we’re here talking about energy jobs,” Shapiro said. “And the bill that the president presumably will be touting would gut 26,000 energy jobs.”

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(Inquirer staff writer Joe DiStefano contributed to this article.)

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