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After vowing to spend $20 billion on data centers across Pennsylvania, Amazon is now quietly reaping the rewards of a controversial, yet lucrative state tax exemption, records show.

Exactly how much Pennsylvania could be forgoing from the tech behemoth is unclear, even as it expands its footprint across the state. In 2025, Amazon announced it would funnel its first investments into two data centers to support artificial intelligence in Salem Township, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and in Falls Township, just north of Philadelphia.

Since then, the company’s portfolio across the state has grown. It recently applied for a local permit to build 36 data centers at a gas powered, 4.5-gigawatt data center campus where a legacy coal plant in Homer City once stood in southwestern Pennsylvania. On the northeastern side of the state, LehighValleyLive recently confirmed Amazon is involved in a 1,300-acre site in Hazle Township, permission for which was denied locally last year, a decision the developer appealed. Nearby, it is also awaiting local permits for another data center site in Kline Township. And after much resident sleuthing, it was confirmed to be a prospective end user for a controversial data center site in Montour County, the rezoning request for which was denied locally in February.

The company has received the tax incentive for two data center locations so far, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue told Capital & Main.

Yet, as Amazon positions itself as one of the state’s largest data center customers, aided by a discount on the 6% sales and use tax on equipment it has pledged to buy, store or use in Pennsylvania, advocates and legislators on both sides of the aisle are pushing to repeal that subsidy altogether.

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In late June, as negotiations around the state’s annual budget advanced, both the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate passed versions of bills repealing the tax exemption, which is projected to cost Pennsylvania close to $2 billion in revenue by 2031 — $188.4 million of that in fiscal year 2026-27 alone. Though they advanced in both chambers, neither measure made it to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk before he signed the final budget July 12.

A repeal of the tax credit was also not included in Shapiro’s sweeping executive order on data centers that he signed Aug. 18. That order prohibits state officials from signing nondisclosure agreements with data center operators and requires operators to secure local community support, while incentivizing them to meet environmental standards and provide their own energy to avert a strain on the power grid. Operators that claim the tax exemption must now sign a consent order vowing to adhere to those standards.

“I want to be clear: These are not voluntary standards — these are legally binding requirements in order to operate here in the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said at the signing ceremony for the order.

Critics, however, say nothing short of a full tax exemption repeal will slow the state’s burgeoning data center industry.

“Shapiro is Pennsylvania’s governor, not Amazon’s, not Meta’s, not Microsoft’s,” said Megan McDonough, Pennsylvania state director at Food & Water Watch, a progressive environmental nonprofit, in a statement when Shapiro first introduced the principles behind the executive order, known as........

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