() President Donald Trump is speaking at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, which will bring together leaders in energy and artificial intelligence along with global investors.
Hosted by Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, the conference will be held at Carnegie Mellon University as Pennsylvania leaders hope to turn the city of Pittsburgh into a hub for energy, robotics and AI.
Trump and McCormick are expected to announce approximately $70 billion in energy investments, though there has been no breakdown of what those investments involve.
Energy has been a major issue for Trump, who has pledged “dominance” in the market. Trump has eschewed clean energy investments, such as wind and solar, instead focusing on a return to coal, an industry with a long history in the state.
McCormick has said the event will bring together top leaders and labor to rally behind Trump’s energy policies and will spur tens of thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania.
The list of participating CEOs includes leaders from global behemoths like Blackstone, SoftBank, Amazon Web Services, BlackRock and ExxonMobil, as well as local companies such as Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, which deploys AI to bolster energy capacity.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, will also be in attendance.
Administration officials speaking at the summit include White House crypto czar David Sacks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
In addition to Carnegie Mellon’s renowned engineering school, Pittsburgh is also home to a natural gas reservoir and a growing number of small robotics firms and AI offices.
The area is also home to U.S. Steel, which was recently acquired by Nippon Steel for nearly $15 billion in a deal approved by Trump after the company pledged to invest billions in area plants.
Amazon has also promised to build two data center complexes in Pennsylvania to the tune of $20 billion, and Microsoft has said it will spend $1.6 billion to open a single functional nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island to supply power for data centers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
