Amazon announced on Monday it plans to spend $20 billion in Pennsylvania to create multiple data campuses that could create 1,250 jobs in the commonwealth.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the locations of the first campuses: in Salem Township and Falls Townships in Luzerne and Bucks Counties. More locations are expected to be announced in the coming months.

The sites, described as “high-tech cloud computing and artificial intelligence innovations campuses,” will be anchored by giant warehouses designed to store data. The projects are expected to provide high-skilled jobs like data center engineers, network specialists and other technical roles.

Data centers are essentially storage units for digital information. They host multiple large computer servers that provide infrastructure for information storage and sharing. Amazon’s plan would include support for artificial intelligence servers.

The company will provide training and education programs to the state, including data center technician programs and fiber optic fusion splicing workshops.

In conjunction with the announcement, Amazon announced the launch of the $250,000 Amazon Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Fund which will provide grants up to $10,000 to support STEM education, sustainability and environment, digital skills, culture and heritage and health and well-being.

Shapiro called the investment the “largest capital investment in commonwealth history” in a statement. His press conference on Monday in Berwick framed the announcement as positive. Leaders like Sen. Dave McCormick applauded the move for its investment and job growth potential.

However, the announcement comes with its share of controversy.

The Salem Township site is slated to be built next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Talen Energy sold a data center to Amazon in 2024 for $650 million, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected a proposed interconnection service agreement between Talen and Amazon that would provide increased power to the data center by essentially allowing the data center to plug directly into the nuclear plant.

Environmental groups nationwide have expressed concern over the environmental footprint of data centers because of the massive amounts of power they require.

Also, the positive financial impact from data centers may not be as large as it seems. A 2022 law allowed computer data center equipment to be exempt from state sales and use tax for eligible companies, which Amazon qualifies for.

John Quigley, a former state Department of Environmental Protection Chief, posted on X that data centers should be required to plan for load flexibility, which is adjusting the usage of energy to the supply of energy in an area. Planning for load flexibility could help avoid stress on the power grid, especially in times of emergency when energy matters most.

Amazon’s announcement is just the latest in a stream of data center plans in Pennsylvania.

Both Middlesex Township and Swatara Township recently made zoning map changes to allow data centers in the municipality. Some residents in the townships and nationally have raised questions on if their municipality’s power and water grids will be able to support a massive increase in need from data centers.

The center in Swatara Township could be at the site of the Dauphin Highlands Golf Course, which is roughly $13 million in debt.

Data centers are also integral in the planned revival of Three Mile Island. In September, the owner of the shuttered nuclear power plant announced a plan to contract with Microsoft to provide power to its data centers.

It’s not clear when Amazon will announce its other planned data centers or what the company is looking for in a site.