Amazon plans to invest $20B in Pennsylvania for data centers

Amazon plans to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand its data center infrastructure to support AI and cloud computing technologies.

The first two data center campuses would be in Luzerne County and Bucks County, according to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

The company noted that Salem Township and Falls Township are the first communities identified as sites for the future innovation campuses. Multiple additional Pennsylvania communities are under consideration.

The investment is expected to create at least 1,250 new high-skilled jobs while supporting thousands of other jobs in the Amazon Web Services, or AWS, data center supply chain, according to the company.

Amazon said that since 2010, it has invested over $26B in Pennsylvania, including infrastructure and compensation to employees, and have created more than 27,000 direct jobs across the Commonwealth.

In addition, Amazon is launching the Amazon Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Fund with a $250K commitment for grants up to $10,000 supporting STEM education, sustainability and environment, digital skills, culture and heritage, health and well-being.

Amazon is building one of the facilities alongside a nuclear power plant that has brought federal scrutiny. The majority owner of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, Talen Energy, noted last year that it had sold its data center to Amazon for $650M in a deal to eventually provide 960 megawatts, the Associated Press reported.

The arrangement between Talen and Amazon has been held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first such case to come before the agency, the report added. There are concerns that diverting power to higher-paying customers would leave enough for others and if it was fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

Tech giants including Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META) have big plans to spend billions of dollars to build their AI infrastructure,