Gov. Shapiro Visits New Amazon Data Center In Bucks County

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Gov. Josh Shapiro appeared in Falls Township late last week to help launch the new high-tech Amazon data center.

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero joined Shapiro Thursday at the site of the new data center at the North Point Keystone Trade Center on the former US Steel property.

North Point bought the old US Steel site after former State Rep. John Galloway and Santarsiero had worked to amend the state’s Fiscal Code in late 2020 to revive the Keystone Opportunity Zone at the site, which provided tax abatements to make the project viable.

The data center is part of a $20 billion investment that Amazon is making in Pennsylvania to construct infrastructure critical to the broader implementation of Artificial Intelligence in the nation's economy.

"I want to thank Gov. Shapiro and his administration for streamlining the regulatory approval process to attract this investment in the first place, and to fast-track the project so that Pennsylvania remains competitive in the field of AI," Santarsiero said. "While we have much to do over the longer term to ensure that AI aligns with our values and goals (including job creation and retention) and that human beings continue to control its implementation, the construction of this infrastructure to power AI is critical to our ability to compete in the 21st-century economy both domestically and internationally."

Amazon is planning to spend at least $20 billion to set up the high-tech cloud computing and artificial intelligence innovation campuses in Pennsylvania.

The deal is expected to create at least 1,250 jobs. The other campus will be located in Salem Township, Luzerne County. Other communities will be identified later, officials said.

The new high-skilled jobs will range from data center engineers and network specialists, to engineering operations managers, security specialists, and many more technical roles, according to Amazon.

(Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus)