Pennsylvania’s A.I. Gold Rush Meets Second Thoughts

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed an executive order imposing what he calls the nation's strictest guardrails on data centers, reversing his earlier fast-track approvals amid a backlash over the rapid build-out. The move follows President Trump's July 2025 visit to Pittsburgh, where Google, Amazon, and Anthropic pledged over $90 billion in investments, and comes as data centers become a top issue in the 2026 midterm elections. Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, now requires local community approval before projects advance.

Pennsylvania’s A.I. Gold Rush Meets Second Thoughts Amid a backlash, Gov. Josh Shapiro is pumping the brakes on enormous data centers. But in a region scarred by the collapse of the steel industry, some welcome billions in construction. President Trump arrived in Pittsburgh last summer on a mission to bring the country’s artificial intelligence boom to the Rust Belt. Flanked by senators and cabinet members, the president celebrated pledges from Google, Amazon and Anthropic to invest more than $90 billion in data centers and other technology in the region. “Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Trump said https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/us/politics/trump-ai-pittsburgh-speech.html . It was part of his administration’s efforts to support a sector it sees as critical to the country’s economic growth and national security. At the time, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, was all-in, fast-tracking approvals for the enormous Amazon data center and offering incentives to bring data centers to old industrial hubs like Pittsburgh, which never fully recovered from the collapse of the steel industry. More than 120 data centers have been planned in the state. But now, things have shifted. A national backlash against the rapid build-out of data centers has made them a top issue in this fall’s midterm elections https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/politics/data-centers-midterm-elections.html . The governor, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, two weeks ago labeled data center developers “predatory” and signed an executive order for what he described as “the nation’s strictest guardrails” for the facilities. He said the state would no longer speed approvals and that data centers must meet new requirements and be approved first by local communities before advancing. Governor Shapiro’s office did not reply to requests for comment. In announcing the executive order, he said he was responding to residents who are alarmed by the speed and scale of these projects. Related Content Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT after-bottom