Recent remarks by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit rang loud and clear: The Keystone State is poised to fuel America’s next great technological transformation. By co-locating AI data centers with abundant local energy resources — especially natural gas and nuclear — Pennsylvania is becoming ground zero for the AI revolution.

But if we want this revolution to reach its full potential — not just in Pennsylvania, but across America — we need to talk about what’s missing from the conversation: fiber broadband.

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Secretary Lutnick spoke eloquently about powering refrigerator-sized AI chips and building massive computing campuses adjacent to old coal plants. But while electricity fuels the machines, connectivity fuels the intelligence.

AI data centers are not just closed-loop systems humming in isolation. They are deeply networked ecosystems that depend on high-speed, low-latency data transmission — from data ingestion and cloud computing to edge applications and real-time analytics. Whether training large language models or powering next-gen applications that support healthcare, logistics, or national security, these centers rely on rapid data exchange with other regions, institutions, and endpoints.

Only fiber-optic broadband — with its superior capacity, reliability, and future-proof scalability — can deliver the performance level AI demands. If America is serious about becoming the AI epicenter our leaders envision, then broadband infrastructure must be prioritized as much as energy. 

And here is where the $42.5 billion federal rural broadband BEAD program comes into play. Right now, governors across the country are making final decisions about where and how to allocate these critical dollars to have the greatest connectivity impact for their rural citizens. As they make these decisions, they must prioritize fiber technologies wherever possible.  If we can get more fiber to our unserved rural and former industrial communities — the very places where AI data centers are being sited — they too can be important parts of our nation’s innovation future.

Fiber broadband must be a national AI priority. If we can retrofit an old coal plant in Homer City, Pennsylvania, to power large-scale AI computation, we can lay fiber to the surrounding communities. Let’s not allow our physical infrastructure to outpace our digital backbone.

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AI won’t succeed in isolated pockets. It thrives on scale, interconnectivity, and distributed access. Every rural township, manufacturing corridor, and energy-rich county in America should be as plugged into the AI future as Silicon Valley.

The energy revolution got us to the starting line. The fiber revolution will take us to the finish.

Jonathan Spalter is the President and CEO of USTelecom – The Broadband Association which represents the interests of the telecommunications industry.