Today’s announcement by President Donald Trump that America’s biggest companies are investing $90 billion to turn Pittsburgh into a major hub for AI tech is a grand slam.
It touches all the bases of Trump’s economic agenda — manufacturing, energy, tech supremacy — and it also addresses national security.
Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The capability of the technology is growing rapidly, and will eventually make its way into every corner of our lives — if it hasn’t already.
Yet AI requires massive data centers with powerful computers running around the clock. These machines, and the air conditioners to cool them, have huge energy demands.
By one estimate, data centers just in the United States used 167 terawatts of electricity in 2023. That’s enough to power all of America for more than two weeks.
And that need for energy will only grow. Data-center electricity