By Jarrett Renshaw
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -President Donald Trump will join executives from some of the largest U.S. tech and energy companies for a summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday as the administration prepares fresh measures to power the U.S. expansion of artificial intelligence.
Top economic rivals 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 – put together by U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican ally from Pennsylvania – to announce some $70 billion in artificial intelligence and energy investments in the state.
Big Tech is scrambling to secure vast amounts of electricity supplies to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for its rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.
The CEOs expected to attend include Khaldoon Al-Mubarak of Mubadala, Rene Hass of SoftBank, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Darren Woods of ExxonMobil, 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.
Mike Sommers, head of the influential American Petroleum Institute, said executive action is welcomed to unlock the energy needed to power the data centers, but a more durable solution is needed.
“Real durable permitting reform requires an act of Congress, not just an executive order,” Sommers said in an interview with Reuters.
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. The White House is considering making July 23 “AI Action Day” to draw attention to the report and demonstrate its commitment to expanding the industry, Reuters has reported.
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 artificial intelligence.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Laila Kearney contributed reporting from New York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Stephen Coates)
