From ‘All In’ to Tap the Brakes: Josh Shapiro Redefines Pennsylvania’s Tech Boom
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Home – Political News – From ‘All In’ to Tap the Brakes: Josh Shapiro Redefines Pennsylvania’s Tech Boom
From ‘All In’ to Tap the Brakes: Josh Shapiro Redefines Pennsylvania’s Tech Boom
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania—In June 2025, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, stood in Berwick and described a new economic horizon for Pennsylvania: Amazon’s plan to invest at least $20 billion in cloud-computing and artificial intelligence campuses across the Commonwealth.
“Pennsylvania is competing again—and I’m proud to announce that, with Amazon’s commitment of at least $20 billion to build new state-of-the-art data center campuses across our Commonwealth, we have secured the largest private-sector investment in the history of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said at the time.
Pennsylvania was “all in on AI,” he added, while casting the state as a major national hub for AI and next-generation technology.
Shapiro also pointed to Pennsylvania’s position as a major energy-producing state and a leading net electricity exporter. These assets, he argued, could support the power-intensive computing facilities behind AI and cloud services.
Amazon said its investment would create at least 1,250 permanent, high-paying technology jobs, along with thousands of construction and supply-chain jobs.
The announcement carried a larger promise. Pennsylvania intended to compete—for construction work, permanent jobs, a local tax base and a stake in an economy increasingly built around data.
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The Commonwealth had already created a mechanism to help make that pitch. Shapiro’s PA Permit Fast Track Program, launched in late 2024, was intended to coordinate and speed state reviews for major infrastructure and economic-development projects.
This week, however, the governor reversed course and redefined the terms for data-center development.Shapiro signed Executive Order 2026-05, immediately removing data center projects from the PA Permit Fast Track Program and making future data center proposals ineligible for expedited review. The order does not prohibit developers........
