Chris Massetti is no Luddite. He likes golf and fly fishing, but he also likes the ability to FaceTime his family on work trips and ask Siri the questions of the universe.
And unlike most people living with the digital benefits of the 21st century, Mr. Massetti actually understands how some of those systems work.
“Everything that you do on a computer, on a phone, on the Nest thermostat in your home, is processed in a data center,” the 49-year-old McKees Rocks executive said.
Mr. Massetti runs a company that makes cooling systems and other equipment for data centers — large warehouses containing bays of densely packed computers — which have become increasingly popular during the AI revolution.
“I probably have ten times as many conversations today than I had six months ago about hyperscale or AI factories located in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Billions of dollars are being spent across the United States to address this market. They're just now starting to trickle into Western Pennsylvania.”
The centers aren’t much to look at, but they power almost every aspect of the online world people now rely on for work and play. They’re also crucial for artificial intelligence computing. As many developers race to buy up land for the lucrative centers, some Pennsylvanians, including Mr. Massetti, are hoping the state isn’t left out of the new, decentralized gold rush.
“Now is the time for political action to take over,” Mr. Massetti said. “If Governor [Josh] Shapiro intends on driving investment within the state of Pennsylvania, they have to increase the prioritization [of data centers]. Without focus, the development will not happen here.”
Ohio has worked to incentivize data centers with tax breaks. Other states, including Virginia and Oregon, have experienced “explosive growth.”
Pennsylvania could be well positioned to profit from data. The state has the second largest nuclear capacity in the nation, and vast reserves of natural gas, both of which could potentially be used to power data centers. Besides tax incentives, access to power is the largest determiner of where data centers are built, reports and interviews with developers show.
Amazon Web Services, one of the largest cloud providers in the world, is planning to build a massive data complex in eastern Pennsylvania — its first to use nuclear power.
On this side of the state, Standard Power is planning to convert a data facility in Beaver County that would make use of the nuclear plant there. Maxim Serezhin, the New York City developer overseeing that project, said he can make more from a data center in Pennsylvania than a high rise office building in Manhattan.
“This is another level of value to the state that is dramatically larger. It's really unbelievable,” he said.
Fresh hope
As many offices in Downtown go vacant, local consultant Kim Ford said data centers are offering developers fresh hope.
“Instead of sexy, amenitized trophy office buildings, the hottest properties in commercial real estate are power-hungry data centers,” she recently wrote in a blog post from her firm, Rise Pittsburgh.
As evidence of the potential, she points to a May report by TD Cowen that found it would only take about three years to connect a “hyperscale data center” to the electric grid in Pittsburgh, making the city one of the fastest places to build. Chicago, Houston and Cleveland all have similar lead times; only Dallas is a few months faster, the report found.
So far, Pennsylvania hasn’t done much to specifically incentivize data center development. Technology is one of five sectors Mr. Shapiro wants to invest in through his new 10-year economic development plan. But the state is trying to create more shovel ready sites, some of which could be used for data.
Last fall, the PA SITES pilot program received 102 applications requesting more than $236 million in funding, which officials said demonstrates “the need for more state investments to make sites more competitive for prospective businesses through better transportation access, utility extensions, or grading of pad-ready sites.”
Some in Pittsburgh believe having data centers close to the city would drive innovation.
“We do need to focus on building some of these up in the region,” said Zico Kolter, the newly appointed director of Carnegie Mellon University's machine learning department. “We want access to our own computing infrastructure,” rather than competing with businesses for limited access to cloud providers, he said.
Researchers and companies don’t necessarily need to be right next to data centers, which are accessed remotely. But there is a latency — or delay — to shipping large amounts of data.
Technologists have previously used the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, located in the basement of the former Westinghouse building, to test algorithms and make new discoveries.
Netflix also has a center in Pittsburgh, ensuring students don’t see streaming delays.
“Having data centers nearby would definitely help the technology sector here,” said Joe Zeff, a Pittsburgh marketing executive who works with Amazon Web Services and other tech firms, “The closer they are, the higher the performance and the lower the latency, supporting real-time data transfers that robotics, space and advanced health care all demand.”
The good, the bad
But for the most part, data centers benefit people elsewhere, and they can bring harm to the communities where they’re located. They sap huge amounts of power and water. And they can be quite loud.
“If you live in a housing plan in a county contiguous to Allegheny, where you just want a little bit of peace and quiet, the last thing you'd want is to be within a quarter mile of a data center,” Mr. Massetti said. “They're very noisy.”
Data centers also aren’t huge employers, though they do require a skilled crew to maintain.
Mr. Serezhin, the developer building in Beaver County, said he tries to fold in other indirect benefits to the communities, like Wi-Fi or funding for schools, to win local support for the projects. AWS employs a similar strategy.
Northern Data Group, which is upgrading a 41,000 square foot facility in McKees Rocks to offer AI capabilities, said the center is designed for “efficient energy use” and will recycle at least 98% of the water it uses to cool the computers.
The German company said it chose to invest in Western Pennsylvania because of “favorable power pricing,” proximity to major U.S. eastern hubs and the potential to use nuclear power.
Evan Robinson-Johnson: ejohnson@post-gazette.com and @sightsonwheels
First Published: June 16, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: June 17, 2024, 7:17 p.m.
