In D.C. last month, Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian told a room of Big Tech top brass that CMU is ready to make “big” and “bold bets” on AI to equip the next generation for success.
Jahanian was one of a few science, tech and innovation leaders invited to a summit by President Donald Trump to mark the “golden age of science in America,” where “superintelligence” — a renaming of artificial intelligence — took center stage.
The university, much like other research institutions nationwide, is going all-in on a commitment to innovate and advance the tech.
In the last year alone, CMU has secured millions for AI research and established industry partnerships with companies such as Google and Amazon.
At the D.C. summit, Jahanian also talked up CMU’s recent $3 billion gift from hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin, who is ardently in favor of data centers. The largest donation in the history of higher ed will boost the Pittsburgh campus and launch a new one in Miami, both of which Jahanian said align with the country’s goals of rapid AI innovation.
These projects, though, might add to the demand for power-hungry data centers, leaving universities to wrestle with the challenge of how to power them and how to minimize their social and environmental impacts amid growing data center skepticism.
Luke Sheneman, director of research computing at the University of Idaho, said there’s a way for higher ed institutions to strike the balance between campus needs and community concerns.
“It’s our responsibility as universities to figure out how to provide the best possible resources to our students, faculty and staff, [while] minimizing the downsides, including the effects of large data centers where we can,” he said.
As for local computing needs, a CMU spokesperson told Public Source the school is drawing from on-campus resources, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, national research facilities and “external partners.”
The statement said the university understands that AI research is “computationally intensive,” and partnerships will prioritize “sustainable and energy-efficient operations.”
Can AI programming compete with winning athletics?
Driving university data center actions is a desire to secure infrastructure in a cost-effective way for campus members, as well as to attract more faculty and students, said energy industry expert Ted Kury.
Kury is the director of energy studies at the University of Florida’s Public Utilities Research Center, and said universities are looking to AI to give them an edge over other schools.
“We already know what a winning football team does [to enrollment], but how about these additional resources? … ‘If you don’t know AI, you’re not going to get a job, or if you do know AI, it’s going to put you out of a job,’” he said. “Folks don’t know what to believe, but they have questions.”
Jahanian said CMU’s new Miami campus model will hinge on “training through advanced technology” with a “deep humanistic core.” In Pittsburgh, Griffin’s gift will help provide “unparalleled access to AI tools” and “state-of-the-art compute resources,” including servers and networking capabilities, according to the university’s website.
The university is also developing a new data center in an undisclosed location for the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which it has owned with the University of Pittsburgh since the ‘80s. The development was quietly announced at the bottom of press releases over the summer regarding National Science Foundation grants the schools were awarded.
The new center is aiming to go online next year and will give researchers access to advanced computing infrastructure that will “accelerate simulations, analyze massive datasets and support advancements that would otherwise be impossible.”
University talent a draw for data centers
CMU and Pitt’s attraction of world-class tech could contribute more to local data demands than their internal usage.
In an August podcast appearance with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, a consultant for a controversial planned data center in Springdale said universities are part of the pitch for data centers in the region.
“You’ve got all sorts of companies here that spun out of CMU that could do really fantastic things if they had access to the compute and if that compute was readily available within the community,” consultant Brian Regli said.
CMU and Pitt have also supported state, city and county officials in pushing Pittsburgh as a regional and global hub for AI. Last year, CMU hosted Sen. Dave McCormick’s inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where billions of dollars in statewide data center investments were announced.
Both schools are represented on the Data Center and AI Infrastructure Community at the Pittsburgh Technology Council through the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The community has 74 members, including Amazon and Meta, and its mission is to foster data center development throughout Pennsylvania, according to its web page.
Over 100 data centers have been proposed in the state, though most have not actually applied for permits, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, there are currently seven in the permitting process, including the Springdale center.
Data center consultant Regli explained that the Springdale facility wouldn’t be a “multi-gigawatt center with thousands of acres,” but rather an “edge data center.” This means it would free up an opportunity for three to five similar-sized data centers to come to the area and create a “shared infrastructure” to support the data needs of big and small organizations.
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is similarly exploring edge computing, according to a Tech Council post this summer. Edge computing, the post said, involves moving closer to where data is generated, “whether in laboratories, hospitals, manufacturing facilities or commercial farms.”
CMU and Pitt did not make their research administrators available for interviews with Public Source. Pitt also declined to answer questions about data centers, including whether they have talked to developers. CMU provided Public Source a statement, but did not specifically address developers.
The Shapiro administration told Public Source they were not aware of conversations between the state and universities about data center plans.
“We cannot speak to any potential discussions or relationships between private developers and those institutions,” the administration said in a statement.
Energy concerns — and solutions?
When developers boast about the workforce and economic benefits of data centers, opponents often fire back with one thing: their massive power usage. They want to know about the source of power, the effect on utility rates and environmental impacts.
Universities like CMU and Pitt find themselves in the middle of the conversation as they offer tacit support of data center development, while hoping to pioneer energy-efficient methods for them as well.
Earlier this summer, the National Science Foundation awarded Pitt and CMU $160 million to study how to improve regional grid infrastructure efficiency alongside West Virginia University. Private companies and state governments contributed another $161 million to the project called the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure, or RETI Consortium.
According to a Pitt feature, the consortium promises to boost the region’s “industrial competitiveness” by strengthening the grid, accelerating the commercialization of energy innovations and expanding venture capital focused on hard tech, among other things.
Data centers, just like households, rely on electricity grids. The region’s grid is aging and not able to support the massive energy demands that data centers impose.
For example, the Springdale center is reported to have a maximum capacity of 240 megawatts. For comparison, Florida’s Kury said that figure is three to four times more than the energy used by Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest.
RETI plans to, in part, accelerate artificial intelligence developments to help solve “America’s energy security challenge.” The consortium argues that West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania make the ideal “test bed” for solutions because the area is the second-largest energy producer in the country.
Erienne Olesh, CEO of RETI, told WTAE in September that the consortium is at the table with data center developers, but clarified that involvement happens after a data center is approved. She said conversations center around how benefits from data centers can stay “as local as possible.”
Olesh said RETI is “not as interested” in how energy is produced, but rather in its transmission and distribution.
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Jamie Wiggan.
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