Strike Wire 2: Bring the Capital Home

In his Feb. 3 budget address, Governor Josh Shapiro proposed the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards — a framework intended to bring clarity and consistency to how AI data centers are permitted and built in Pennsylvania. We attended the address in Harrisburg & his framework drew applause from both sides of the aisle.

Consider that the Interstate Highway System took decades and roughly $15 billion per year (inflation-adjusted) to build. Today, AI infrastructure investment is exceeding $250 billion annually. This is the fastest capital deployment in modern history — and Pennsylvania has the assets to compete and win in this race for more jobs, tax revenue and flywheel investment.

However, public understanding of how these facilities operate has not kept pace.

My 72-year-old aunt ( ignorant to social media algorithms) thinks that data centers are “starving communities of water.”

Actually, modern closed-loop AI data centers use less water than many traditional industrial uses. Large pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, for example, can consume up to 2 million gallons per day. A 100-MW modern data center uses use a fraction of that amount — and in most cases its water usage is comparable to a residential subdivision. And it’s worth noting: two Pennsylvania counties are among the most water-rich in the country.

Social media companies have become AI companies — dependent on massive data centers, compute, and energy to survive and scale. Yet the very algorithms that power their growth may also be amplifying misinformation about them.

In the race to build the infrastructure of the AI economy, the narrative is being shaped by the same systems driving the demand.

That tension isn’t incidental. It’s the story.

AI capital is increasingly flowing to states that combine land and energy capacity with regulatory clarity and institutional alignment. Governor Josh Shapiro has taken a visible bipartisan role in that conversation — not only advancing policy proposals, but shaping the public framing around grid readiness and energy reform.

Following a White House meeting with bipartisan governors, Shapiro criticized PJM Interconnection for being “too damn slow to let new generation on the grid,” highlighting interconnection delays as a structural constraint on growth. He subsequently joined a bipartisan Statement of Principles alongside U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum aimed at reforming PJM processes, accelerating new generation, and moderating long-term electricity cost pressures.

Now, by putting a statewide framework on the table, he is signaling that Pennsylvania intends to define the rules of engagement around AI infrastructure rather than react to them.

AI infrastructure is today’s modern highway and it must be built. The question is where — and under what standards. Pennsylvania recently secured a $20 billion investment from Amazon for new data center development, tied to approximately 1,250 high-skilled jobs. The agreement includes expanded K–12 STEM programming and the launch of a Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Fund.

By filling the information vacuum with clear expectations around infrastructure responsibility and community benefit, Pennsylvania strengthens its position to compete. Last year, Virginia generated roughly $3 billion in tax revenue from data centers. Pennsylvania remains a major energy exporter.

The open question: how much Pennsylvania-produced energy is powering revenue collected elsewhere?

Execution will determine whether the Commonwealth captures more of that value.

Pittsburgh continues to be a top birthing hub for AI companies. Last year, 83% of all venture capital in Pittsburgh flowed to AI companies, making it the most concentrated AI investment hub in the country outside of Silicon Valley. We saw this momentum clearly last year with Gecko Robotics’ $125 million Series D and Abridge’s $300 million Series E, and that strength has carried into Q1 2026:

Eli Lilly and Company is investing $3.5 billion to build a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Lehigh County — the largest life sciences investment in Pennsylvania history. The project will create at least 850 jobs over five years and includes a $5 million state-backed workforce development program to build a direct talent pipeline.

Lilly is not just expanding manufacturing capacity nationally; it is scaling AI capacity.

In partnership with NVIDIA, the nearly 150-year-old company is building what it describes as the most powerful AI supercomputer owned by a pharmaceutical firm — using AI to accelerate drug discovery, model molecular interactions, optimize manufacturing processes, and compress development timelines.

Leadership has described the shift as moving from AI as a tool to AI as a “scientific collaborator.” That framing matters.

For Pennsylvania’s R-1 research institutions — including Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn — this creates the potential for a new flywheel:

Advanced AI research → applied drug discovery → scaled manufacturing → workforce development → reinvestment in research.

If aligned intentionally, collaborations could include translational partnerships between university labs.

The opportunity is not just 850 jobs. Lilly is now “anchored” big into Pennsylvania’s ecosystem. This is not a traditional plant announcement. It is a signal that AI-driven life sciences manufacturing is scaling — and that Pennsylvania’s research institutions now sit closer to that industrial frontier.

We followed Pittsburgh’s momentum straight to Silicon Valley alongside Meredith Grelli and Carnegie Mellon University’s startup powerhouse. As head of CMU’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Grelli is building a direct pipeline between the university’s world-class technologists and the capital, partners, and platforms they need to scale globally.

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, set the tone with a defining insight: intelligence will be at your fingertips — the real advantage is curiosity. “Asking the right questions” is the new intelligence. In a world saturated with AI, the winners won’t be those with access to tools, but those who know how to interrogate them.

CMU’s third Lab-to-Market event in 12 months convened 252 deep-tech investors, founders, corporate partners, and journalists from Bloomberg News and Forbes.

Bottom line

Pittsburgh exports innovation. Now the mission is to bring the capital home — and make Pittsburgh the place where companies are not only born, but built to last. That’s why, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, AI Horizons will take place during the same week as CMU’s Lab-to-Market initiative — aligning research, founders, and funders in one concentrated moment.

Economic development leaders across the region are working to bring a true “Startup Week” to life — a coordinated, citywide agenda designed to pull capital into Pittsburgh and keep it here.

The AI Strike Team was honored to host a session of The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy’s Artificial Intelligence Industry Study Seminar, a senior-level institution focused on preparing military leaders, government officials, private-sector executives, and international partners to address 21st-century national security challenges. We spotlighted AI Avenue and the region’s dense, end-to-end innovation ecosystem. The visit included senior leaders from industry and government, including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Chief Commercial Officer and military leaders from Norway and Turkey.

The AI Strike Team advances strategic initiatives and cross-sector partnerships that catalyze AI-driven investment, innovation, and adoption — positioning Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania for sustained growth and leadership in the New AI Economy.