Ruth Porat’s remarks at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit

Editor’s note: Today, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google, Ruth Porat, joined President Trump, Senator Dave McCormick and government and business leaders at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh, where she shared Google’s plans to expand energy capacity, innovation, and opportunity for Americans during the AI era.

Key highlights include:

• Google plans to invest more than $25 billion in data center and AI infrastructure in states across the PJM region in the next two years.
• Google is announcing more than $3 billion to modernize two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania.
• Google is launching AI Works for America, starting in Pennsylvania, to train American workers and students by teaching them essential AI skills.

Read her full remarks, edited for clarity below:

On behalf of Google, I am pleased to be here in Pittsburgh to announce that Google is investing more than $25 billion across states in this critical PJM region over the next two years.

To support this investment, Google is expanding energy capacity and innovation in three ways:

First, to support the Trump Administration’s mandate for energy abundance, Google recently announced, with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the largest-ever direct corporate purchase agreement for fusion energy that will accelerate the development of advanced nuclear technology. Beyond the $25 billion investment I just shared, today, we are also announcing a $3 billion, 20-year agreement with Brookfield Energy to modernize two hydropower facilities in Lancaster County.

Second, the Department of Energy has estimated that there is up to 100 GW of additional capacity in America’s existing grid infrastructure. At Google, we recognize the critical importance that accessing this capacity will have, both in keeping electricity costs low for American ratepayers, and to enable faster deployment of AI — and we are doing our part to help unlock this capacity in America. To that end, at Google we are applying advanced technology to ensure that we are most efficiently using power from the grid and we are working on ways that AI can help identify and deploy capacity more efficiently.

We are also focused on training to support the jobs created to modernize the grid. McKinsey estimates that the United States needs 130,000 additional electrical workers by 2030, yet more are retiring each year than entering the field. Last month, Google made a grant to the electrical training ALLIANCE (etA) to equip more than 100,000 electrical workers with AI-powered learning tools, and train 30,000 new apprentices by 2030. Today, Google is expanding that grant to increase the projected pipeline of new electricians in Pennsylvania by 64%.

Third, we think it is critical and fair in building America’s AI future, to ensure that everyone can benefit from it. Today, starting in Pennsylvania, Google is launching AI Works for America. Through partnerships with leading employers, universities, skilled trades and manufacturers, Google will help train American workers and students by teaching them essential AI skills. As part of this commitment, I am proud to announce that Google will be offering free AI training to all small businesses in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Google has proudly called Pittsburgh home since 2006. Our first office was in a small space right here on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus. We are grateful to be invited here today and look forward to doing our part.

Senator McCormick, thank you for convening this important summit.

Mr. President, thank you for your leadership and for your clear and urgent direction that our nation invest in AI infrastructure, technology and the energy to unlock its benefits so that America can continue to lead.

Thank you.