Blackstone to invest $25 billion in Pennsylvania data centers and natural gas plants, COO says

Blackstone plans to invest $25 billion in developing data centers and power plants in Pennsylvania, President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said at a panel at the Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. 

Blackstone had identified several sites to build the energy-intensive centers, Gray said, adding that the private equity firm also plans to partner with an electric utility to build multiple natural gas power generation facilities to fuel the data centers in Pennsylvania.

Big Tech is fueling a turnaround in U.S. power consumption with the expansion of data centers, which are needed to train and roll out artificial intelligence.

One of the biggest roadblocks in the race to expand artificial intelligence technologies are the long wait times, caused by supply chain constraints and permitting, to power data centers. Locating data centers directly at the sites of power plants, an arrangement known as co-location, can potentially cut down time to power.

Blackstone plans to focus on co-located projects in Pennsylvania, Gray said.

"What makes us so excited about this area is the idea that you can co locate data centers directly next to the source of power and that's really the special sauce here is being able to put these things together," Gray said.