Amazon Web Services’ $20B Pa. investment will include data centers in Luzerne, Bucks counties

Amazon Web Services will invest at least $20 billion to open data centers in Luzerne and Bucks counties and other unnamed Pennsylvania sites, creating 1,250 permanent high-skill jobs, officials said Monday.

The centers will power the expansion of Amazon’s cloud computing and artificial-intelligence capabilities worldwide.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said the centers should produce thousands of construction jobs, and Amazon predicted the centers would support thousands of jobs at companies that supply the centers.

Amazon Web officials did not say how many people will work full-time at the Luzerne or Bucks centers alone, but Shapiro praised the development at a carefully staged event featuring top Amazon officials at the historic Jackson Mansion in Berwick.

“I’m here to announce that Pennsylvania has landed the largest private sector investment in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.

The governor said his administration wooed Amazon for about 20 months and credited “extremely hard and collaborative work” by his administration, “Amazon and leaders at every level of government.”

The Luzerne County center will sit next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a 42-year-old nuclear power plant in Salem Township. Data centers require a great deal of energy. Officials did not say when the centers would begin operating.

Talen Energy, which owns the nuclear plant, announced the sale of its 960-megawatt data center next door in March 2024 to Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon, for $650 million.

At the time, Amazon touted the sale as part of its long-term effort to power operations exclusively with renewable energy, including nuclear power.

The other center will open in Falls Township in Bucks County.

‘Transformational investment’

State Secretary of Community and Economic Development Rick Siger said Amazon Web is “building out” Talen Energy’s existing data center.

“The scale of the investment (by Amazon), the nature of the investment, the job creation are all new,” Siger said. “And this is really the first time, we’ve been public about this transformational investment, again, alongside the investment in Bucks County as well.”

Shapiro portrayed the development as a sign that his long-term plan to reduce regulatory obstacles is working.

He turned to a crowd of local labor trade union members who attended the event and stand to benefit from the centers.

“You guys ready to be busy?” he shouted as the union members applauded. “These trades members are going to be working for years and years and years to build out these data centers. Our schools and our police departments, our local communities will benefit from the millions of dollars in new tax revenue that will be brought in from this investment.”

Students studying for technical careers “will be able to take the skills they’ve learned in the classroom and then apply them to good-paying jobs right in their hometown communities,” Shapiro said. “For too long, we’ve watched as towns across Pennsylvania got hollowed out and left behind. No more. Now is our time to rebuild those communities and invest in them.”

Shapiro said Pennsylvania-based growth in artificial-intelligence will strengthen the nation’s security.

“You see, right now, there is a battle for supremacy when it comes to AI, a battle that will be won by either the United States or China,” Shapiro said. “I’m comforted by the fact that, thanks to Amazon, the future of AI is going to run right here through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, because I sure as hell think those technologies should be developed by the hands of a Pennsylvania worker here in the United States of America, not in communist China.”

Kevin Miller, Amazon Web’s vice president of global data center infrastructure, said the Pennsylvania data centers will “serve as the backbone for America’s AI infrastructure.”

Photo Copyright Noah Berger, 2023

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Courtesy of Amazon

Sponsored training for local students

The company will also sponsor data center technician training programs at local colleges and develop local science, technology, engineering and math programs for local kindergarten to 12th grade students.

“We’re establishing partnerships with Pennsylvania’s educational institutions to really help develop the curriculum and training programs that are going to prepare workers for tomorrow’s jobs,” he said.

Miller said the company settled on Pennsylvania because of its skilled workforce, strong infrastructure and a commitment to clean energy “that really align well with Amazon’s needs, building the future of AI and cloud computing.”

Luzerne County Community College President John Yudichak, a former state senator, worked on the passage of Act 25 of 2021 that established data center tax exemption to serve as an economic incentive to attract data center development to Pennsylvania.

Yudichak said his school is prepared to train students for the jobs the centers will create.

“Luzerne County Community College stands at the ready to be the region’s workforce development pipeline by producing the necessary technology and skilled trade workers to meet the demands of a 21st-century Pennsylvania economy through its new Career & Technology Academy, its Applied Technology Programs, and the new LCCC Microcredential Academy,” Yudichak said in a statement released Wednesday.

Shannon Kellogg, Amazon Web’s vice president for public policy in the Americas, said Amazon will launch a community fund with $250,000 initially for grants of up to $10,000 to support STEM education, sustainability, digital skills and local culture and health.

“We are proud to call Pennsylvania our partner and our newest home,” Kellogg said.