Amazon is planning to pour $20 billion into the US state of Pennsylvania to build two new data centers to expand its AI infrastructure.
The location for the data centers is still up in the air, with Salem Township and Falls Township as the frontrunners, but other Pennsylvania communities are under consideration, according to a June 9 statement from Amazon.
The AI arms race between companies has been heating up this year, with Meta reportedly in talks back in February to build a data center campus for AI projects and OpenAI announcing in January it was investing $500 billion for new AI infrastructure over the next four years.
Training and education programs part of the deal
Along with the data centers, Amazon said it has partnered with Pennsylvania educational institutions and workforce organizations to create training centers that support careers in cloud computing infrastructure.
The training and education programs are expected to include data center technician programs, fiber optic fusion splicing workshops and STEM awareness and learning opportunities for K-12 schools.
Amazon said its efforts are geared toward securing the US as a leader in the accelerating AI race.
“Our strategic investments in advanced computing infrastructure and specialized AI hardware are building the technology backbone for the next generation of generative and agentic AI, and helping to secure America’s position at the forefront of global innovation,” Amazon said.
Amazon and other tech giants ramp up AI expansion
The tech giant also made similar commitments in North Carolina on June 4, with a $10 billion investment to expand its data center infrastructure to support AI and cloud computing technologies.
US firms have begun ramping up AI expansion. On May 29, social media giant Meta joined the growing list of firms developing AI-powered technology for the US military, entering a deal to create AI-powered virtual and augmented reality gear.
Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in November that his firm is focused on being at the forefront of agentic AI, and Microsoft said in September that it was establishing two AI centers in Abu Dhabi.
Crypto mining companies shift resources to AI
Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies have also been diversifying their income streams to include AI, converting some of their crypto mining operations to help run compute-intensive large language models.
Riot Platforms appointed three new directors to its board in February, one of whom has experience converting Bitcoin mining assets toward HPC. Hive Digital, Hut 8 and Iris Energy converted part of their operations to HPC and AI last year.
Related: Why tech giants like Amazon may hesitate to adopt Bitcoin
TeraWulf sold its stake in a Bitcoin mining facility for $92 million in October, with the proceeds marked for hosting AI and building HPC data centers.
In an August report, asset manager VanEck estimated that if publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies shifted 20% of their energy capacity to AI and HPC by 2027, they could increase additional yearly profits by $13.9 billion over 13 years.
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