PPL Corporation and Blackstone have agreed to a joint venture to build data centers and the generation plants needed to power them in Pennsylvania, which could bring thousands of new jobs to the region.
Funds managed by Blackstone Infrastructure and Blackstone Real Estate will invest over $25 billion to support the buildout in Pennsylvania’s digital and energy infrastructure and help catalyze an additional $60 billion investment into the commonwealth, the company said in a news release.
Blackstone touts itself as the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management.
“We’re thrilled to be investing behind two of our highest conviction themes — digital infrastructure and energy — in a part of the country that is ideally situated to support and expand America’s leading position in the AI revolution,” Jon Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, said.
Gray made the announcement during a panel discussion at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit that U.S. Sen. David McCormick hosted at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and that President Donald Trump attended.
President Donald Trump, center, speaks at the “Inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Event” at Carnegie Mellon University, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Pittsburgh, as Sen Dave McCormick, R-Pa., left, and Jon Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone, right, look on. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Officials say Pennsylvania is uniquely suited to serve as a strategic hub to power the nation’s AI objectives given its abundant low-cost energy that accounts for 20% of the nation’s natural gas production.
“Our region is full of untapped power, and is more than ready for new growth, investments, and opportunities. This is a $25 billion investment that will bring thousands of family-sustaining jobs to our region,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who attended the summit.
Blackstone asserts that over 6,000 jobs “will be created or supported” annually over an estimated 10-year construction timeline, and over 3,000 permanent jobs will be created or supported during operations by QTS and its customers.
Blackstone also touts a long-standing relationship with union labor and plans to continue that partnership in Pennsylvania.
And, Blackstone says, the venture is “ready to move.”
Blackstone-backed QTS, the largest independent data center operator in the world, has secured multiple land sites throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania to develop and operate Pennsylvania data center sites and intends to issue a “request for information” to invite other communities to participate in the buildout of additional data centers.
Blackstone and PPL plan to build, own and operate new gas-fired, combined-cycle electric generation stations to power the data centers under long-term energy services agreements with hyperscalers — large-scale cloud computing providers that can handle vast amounts of data and traffic. Major hyperscalers include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
The joint venture is “actively engaged” with landowners, natural gas pipeline companies and turbine manufacturers, and has secured multiple land parcels to enable the new electric generation buildout; however, no agreements with hyperscalers have been signed to date, PPL said.
PPL said the joint venture seeks to develop “front-of-the-meter generation that sits atop the Marcellus and Utica shale basins; can quickly connect to significant, available gas pipeline capacity; and targets areas of significant data center interest.”
Neither company would say where in Pennsylvania generation sites already have been secured. But a PPL spokesman said power generation facilities would be located near the data centers they power.
President Donald Trump, center, arrives to speak at the “Inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Event” at Carnegie Mellon University, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Pittsburgh. Standing with the President are from left, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., Trump and Jon Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Within PPL Electric Utilities’ service territory in Pennsylvania alone, data center interest has reached over 60 gigawatts of potential projects, with over 13 GW in advanced stages of planning.
If all 13 GW come online, PPL estimates a 6 GW generation shortfall in PPL Electric Utilities’ service territory in the next five to six years. That represents about a $15 billion investment need, assuming natural gas combined-cycle units are used to meet this need.
PPL said it expects this generation to be built by existing independent power producers, the new joint venture with Blackstone and, if permitted, PPL Electric Utilities.
PPL owns 51% of the joint venture interest, and Blackstone Infrastructure owns 49%. The parties will ratably share joint venture expenses and distributions. The joint venture does not include PPL Electric Utilities or PPL’s other regulated subsidiaries.