AMAZON COMMITS $20 BILLION TO PENNSYLVANIA DATA CENTERS

Amazon announced a $20 billion investment to construct two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, one adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick and another in Fairless Hills, as part of its push to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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The Berwick facility's direct connection to nuclear power has sparked federal review, while the investment marks a significant economic boost for the state.

MASSIVE CAPITAL INFUSION FOR AI GROWTH

Amazon's $20 billion commitment, revealed on June 9, 2025, targets two data center complexes to support the surging demand for cloud computing and AI products.

The investment, described by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as the largest private-sector capital infusion in the state's history, will create at least 1,250 high-skilled jobs and support thousands more in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) supply chain.

Since early 2024, Amazon has pledged similar $10 billion investments for data centers in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina, reflecting its aggressive expansion to compete with tech giants like Microsoft and Google.

The Pennsylvania projects will qualify for the state’s sales tax exemption on data center equipment, such as servers and routers, a standard incentive to attract tech investments.

BERWICK'S NUCLEAR-POWERED DATA CENTER

One data center is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Luzerne County, where Amazon intends to draw power directly from the facility. In 2024, Talen Energy, the plant's majority owner, sold the adjacent 1,200-acre data center campus to AWS for $650 million, with an agreement to supply up to 960 megawatts of electricity—40% of the plant's output, enough to power over 500,000 homes.

This “behind-the-meter” arrangement, bypassing the regional power grid, has drawn scrutiny from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which rejected a request to expand power sales on November 1, 2024, citing concerns about grid equity and potential cost shifts to other customers.