Mike Sommers, CEO and president of the American Petroleum Institute, told FOX Business that the nation’s petroleum companies are ready to power the future of AI.
President Donald Trump is slated to meet energy and tech titans in Pennsylvania next week as the state seeks to leverage growing national demand for energy and artificial intelligence.
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick’s inaugural Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh will convene on Tuesday. Carnegie Mellon University — a bellwether in computer science, artificial intelligence and robotics engineering — will host the forum.
Trump has made energy dominance and the race to develop and deploy artificial intelligence core pillars of his economic and national security agenda.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 11, 2025. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The United States needs to win the artificial intelligence fight. We have to stop China, and we have to win this war for dominance in AI. And the way you win the war for dominance in AI is to win the war for energy dominance. That’s why our focus is on producing more here in the United States,” explained Mike Sommers, CEO and president of the American Petroleum Institute.
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Sommers, who leads the nation’s largest natural gas and oil trade association and is slated to attend the summit, said the industry is prepared to meet the nation’s energy needs amid the coming AI revolution.
“Over the course of the last few years, energy demand has only gone up by about 2.5% a year. In the next seven years, we expect that energy demand is going to go up by 25%. The question that policymakers have to answer is: ‘Where is that energy going to come from?’ We think it should come from the United States,” Sommers told FOX Business.
Diversified Energy employees stand by a natural gas well in Franklin Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, on September 6, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
When asked about public hesitation around embracing AI, Sommers explained that AI is no longer a distant concept and is already deeply intertwined in daily life.
“We’re at a point now where AI is entering just about every single business. Whether you’re somebody that is working on a report or somebody who’s analyzing numbers or even computer programmers, this is going to affect every single American,” Sommers said.
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“The real question is whether the United States is going to be the leader in AI or whether we’re going to let China be the lead. I think that the answer is clear: The only way that we can win the war for AI is if we have reliable energy that is provided from places like Pennsylvania,” he added.
The summit comes as the Keystone State works to bolster its tech sector while preserving its status as a leading natural gas producer in the U.S., second only to Texas.
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Last month, Amazon announced an investment of $20 billion in two data center complexes in Pennsylvania. The deal marks the largest corporate investment project in the state’s history.
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While the passage of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” was a win for energy companies, largely due to provisions that grant more access to natural resources, Sommers hopes to galvanize lawmakers for an infrastructure and permitting bill.
“It’s an uphill climb,” he said, adding that he believes there is “broad recognition from Republicans and Democrats that we have to get this done if we’re going to win the fight for AI.”
Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
