July 15 (Reuters) - Blackstone plans to invest $25

billion in developing data centers and power plants in

Pennsylvania, President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray

said at a panel at the Energy and Innovation Summit in

Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Blackstone had identified several sites to build the

energy-intensive centers, Gray said, adding that the private

equity firm also plans to partner with an electric utility to

build multiple natural gas power generation facilities to fuel

the data centers in Pennsylvania.

Big Tech is fueling a turnaround in U.S. power consumption with

the expansion of data centers, which are needed to train and

roll out artificial intelligence.

One of the biggest roadblocks in the race to expand artificial

intelligence technologies are the long wait times, caused by

supply chain constraints and permitting, to power data centers.

Locating data centers directly at the sites of power plants, an

arrangement known as co-location, can potentially cut down time

to power.

Blackstone plans to focus on co-located projects in

Pennsylvania, Gray said.

"W

," Gray said.