FIRST ON FOX – Amazon announced Monday a $20 billion investment in creating artificial intelligence data centers in rural Pennsylvania.
It is the largest corporate investment made in Pennsylvania’s history, Amazon’s Vice President of Public Policy Shannon Kellogg told FOX Business.
The investment, the first data structure investment of this scale in the Keystone State, will be centered in Salem Township and Falls Township in the Berwick area.
“There will be multiple data centers as part of these sites,” Kellogg said before a local event announcing the deal.
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“We have just a huge turnout here locally as we’re about to make this announcement, which I think is reflective of how the community is embracing this type of investment,” he said. “And because we’ll be in a couple of different locations, we’re going to impact more than one township and more than one community. And I think it’s going to be very positive for them and very positive for us. And what I mean by that is we really integrate ourselves into the communities where we invest. And so you have the jobs that come with it.”
He said coordination with President Donald Trump’s administration is crucial.
“We work very closely with the Trump administration in terms of understanding the types of things that they’re trying to do to spur continued data center investment across the U.S. and that includes, as you probably have been tracking some executive orders that they’ve released,” Kellogg told FOX Business. “They have a number of policies that they have been advancing to make it easier to develop data center infrastructure here in the U. S. Including what can be done to make permitting more streamlined and faster.”
He continued, “That includes just how we’re building up the data centers and the processes and permitting around that, but power, power is central to all this. You have to have the energy in order to enable this type of continued build out of infrastructure in the U.S., and so the administration is really focused on what can be done to expand the generation and transmission of power across the country.”
Kellogg said the “record-breaking announcement” for Pennsylvania comes at a “critical” time “as you step back and look at both the national and global picture.”
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“There’s a global competition between the U.S. and other nations in terms of having leadership around artificial intelligence,” Kellogg said. “This is where the rubber meets the road, you know, when you put this type of data center infrastructure into a state like Pennsylvania, into local townships and counties like we’re developing right here in rural Pennsylvania, that is central to this global competition because you have to have the infrastructure, you have the cloud computing foundation, and you also have to have the power and energy available and Pennsylvania has all of those ingredients.”
Kellogg, who also thanked the leadership of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, said Amazon is announcing a $250,000 in-communities fund to help support non-profits in the area.
“We also really get engaged in investing in workforce development and skills development programs in these communities that we operate,” Kellogg said. “And that’s also very exciting for ultimately, the people that we train and the jobs that will be produced as a result of that training, as well as the local institutions, including community colleges, that we partner up with.”
The deal comes as Amazon and fellow tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, OpenAI, xAI and others are working to expand infrastructure across the country, while promising jobs and other economic opportunities. Some cities and towns across America are questioning whether they’ll benefit or if they simply have to foot the bill for tax breaks, energy costs and potential environmental hazards. With data-center power demand set to triple by 2028, we look at the big money being invested and the concerns coming from communities.
“We’re super engaged with the local communities from the beginning and we’re always having a dialogue to understand any concerns, any issues that might emerge along the way,” Kellogg said. “We’re also, as we make these investments, really focused on having sustainable operations and that includes in things like water.”
He said Amazon “has a water-positive goal” and is “looking to be water positive in every community that we operate in by 2030.”
“We’re very focused on making sure that we fulfill that broader goal,” he said. “And that means in these local communities, we’re making, in many cases, investments in water systems to help with upgrades and those types of things as we expand this infrastructure across the country, including right here in Pennsylvania.”
Fox News’ Madison Alworth contributed to this report.
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