We often describe artificial intelligence as if it lives somewhere above us. We call it “the cloud.” We imagine algorithms floating in a digital world disconnected from the physical one. But nothing about AI is weightless.
AI and data run on infrastructure. Infrastructure runs on manufacturing.
Before an AI system answers a question, something very real has already happened. Steel has been formed. Components have been machined. Electrical systems have been assembled. Cooling equipment has been installed. Energy has been generated and delivered. Thousands of physical decisions, and thousands of skilled hands, make every digital moment possible. The future may feel virtual. But it is built in factories.
Across the country, investment is accelerating into data centers and modern energy systems. These facilities will shape how we work, communicate, produce, and innovate for decades to come. Yet beneath the conversation about software and computing power lies a simpler truth, none of it exists without the people and companies who build the physical systems behind it.
The question facing regions like Southwestern Pennsylvania is not whether the AI economy will grow. It will.
The question is whether we will help build it.
Our region carries a legacy of powering progress. We forged the materials that built cities, generated the energy that powered industry, and engineered solutions that reached far beyond our borders. Today the form of infrastructure is changing, server halls instead of mills, grid modernization instead of rail expansion, but the need for makers has not disappeared. It has intensified. We already possess what this new economy requires, advanced manufacturers, energy production, robotics and software innovation, and world class engineering talent. Few places hold that combination. The opportunity is not to reinvent ourselves, but to align what we already do best.
Yet opportunity alone does not guarantee participation. Many capable manufacturers never enter emerging supply chains because the pathway is unclear. They cannot see the buyers, understand the requirements, or justify the risk of change without support. When that happens, work leaves not because we lack capability, but because we lack connection. The purpose of PowerUp is to change that narrative.
This consortium brings together manufacturers, technology leaders, universities, and economic development partners around a shared mission, ensuring our companies can participate in building the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence and modern energy systems.
To move from conversation to action, Catalyst Connection has been included in the U.S. Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, requested by U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pennsylvania, and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, $600,000 in funding from the Small Business Administration. The funding will be dedicated to supplier readiness, workforce preparation, and technical assistance. This investment will allow manufacturers to upgrade operations, meet new standards, and step confidently into these emerging markets. Instead of asking companies to take the leap alone, the region is stepping forward with them.
Why does this matter? Because infrastructure determines where prosperity lives.
If the systems behind AI are built locally, the opportunity is local. Skills grow. Careers grow. Communities grow. But if the physical supply chain lives elsewhere, we risk becoming spectators to an economy we helped make possible.
Artificial intelligence will change how we work, but it will not replace the importance of people who build things. In fact, it elevates it. The more digital our world becomes, the more essential its physical foundation becomes.
The next industrial era will not belong only to those who design technology. It will belong to those who build what technology depends on.
Southwestern Pennsylvania has done that before. We can do it again, not by chasing the future, but by manufacturing it.
Because AI and data run on infrastructure. Infrastructure runs on manufacturing. And the regions that connect the two will build the next economy.