Project Overview

Project Phoenix is Aligned's planned 2 GW data center campus at the Shippingport Industrial Park, on land acquired from Frontier Group of Companies. It broke ground on September 10, 2026, and is positioned as Aligned’s first Pennsylvania campus and a regional flagship for AI and cloud-scale digital infrastructure. 

Spanning three facilities, the development will meet robust regional demand for digital infrastructure while anchoring an estimated USD 10 billion in regional economic investment.  

Project Phoenix is designed to use dedicated on-site power rather than relying primarily on the local electric grid. Aligned plans to use natural-gas-fed fuel cells, allowing the campus to expand in modular phases while reducing its immediate dependence on constrained transmission infrastructure. 

The data center facility will support about 3,000 construction jobs and create roughly 640 permanent operational jobs. The company also expects the project to generate indirect employment, new annual government revenue for Beaver County, and broader supply-chain activity across western Pennsylvania. 

Phoenix Data Center Location

Project Phoenix is located in the Shippingport Industrial Park in Shippingport, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, around 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The Aligned Data Centers campus sits on a former industrial site adjacent to the retired Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant, which operated from 1976 to 2019 and is now being redeveloped as the Shippingport Power Station. 

The location sits within western Pennsylvania’s emerging energy-and-compute corridor, with access to existing industrial land, natural-gas infrastructure, and regional transportation networks. 

Project Background

The Shippingport site served as a base for the Bruce Mansfield coal plant, a 2.49 GW facility that operated from 1976 to 2019. Frontier Group of Companies owns the industrial park and plans a 2.7 GW natural gas plant there, with EQT and National Fuel Gas expected to serve it.

Borough of Shippingport council documents referred to Aligned's campus as Project Phoenix. The council approved Aligned's conditional-use application on 31 March 2026, and National Fuel lateral began construction. 

Aligned completed the purchase of about 650.9 acres for about USD 223 million in July 2026, the same month an AIP-led consortium completed its roughly USD 40 billion acquisition of Aligned with a further USD 5 billion of committed growth capital.

Phoenix Data Center Current Status

The Phoenix Data Center is currently under construction. Aligned announced the formal groundbreaking on 10 September 2026, after Shippingport Borough approved its conditional-use application on 31 March 2026 and Aligned completed the land purchase in July 2026.

The campus is planned as three facilities totalling 2 GW, with its own dedicated on-site power rather than the local grid. No tenant, completion date, energization date, or generating capacity has been disclosed.

Stakeholder Details

Phoenix Data Center Project Cost

The total construction cost for Project Phoenix has not been officially disclosed. However, the company states that the project is expected to anchor an estimated USD 10 billion in regional economic investment. 

Project Scope

The following is the project scope of the Phoenix Data Center Project:

• Site redevelopment: The project converts a dormant former industrial site associated with the Bruce Mansfield coal plant into modern digital infrastructure. 
  

• Dedicated onsite power: Rather than relying solely on the local grid, the campus will use dedicated onsite generation, including natural-gas-fed fuel cells supplied by Bloom Energy. 
  

• High-density AI cooling: The facilities will use Aligned’s high-density cooling approach, including liquid-cooling-ready infrastructure for GPU-heavy AI workloads. This allows the campus to support demanding AI accelerators and high rack densities. 
  

• Water-efficient cooling: The campus is designed to use a closed-loop cooling system that recycles deionized water, with no operational water consumption for cooling. 

Project Timeline

Benefits

The following are the benefits of the project:

• Construction employment: It is projected to support roughly 3,000 construction jobs, providing sustained work for local trades during the build phase.
  

• Long-term jobs: Once operational, the campus is expected to create about 640 permanent jobs, plus indirect jobs across suppliers and local services. 
  

• Potential power supply boost: The development is expected to return substantial excess power capacity to the grid, helping support PJM and Pennsylvania electricity consumers. 
  

• Minimal water use: Each facility is engineered for zero operational cooling water, using a closed-loop system that continuously recycles deionized water. 
  

• Transparency and responsible development: The project aligns with Pennsylvania’s GRID requirements, emphasizing affordability, workforce development, transparency, and environmental protection. 
  

• Support for AI and cloud demand: The 2 GW campus provides large-scale capacity for data-intensive workloads such as AI, cloud computing, and enterprise digital services. 

Conclusion

Project Phoenix marks a pivotal step in transforming Shippingport, Pennsylvania, from a coal-energy site to a modern hub for digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence. The 2 GW, three-facility campus is expected to attract an estimated USD 10 billion in regional investment.

 It supports around 3,000 construction jobs and more than 640 permanent operational jobs, along with indirect roles across the regional supply chain. Furthermore, it is expected to return substantial excess capacity to the grid, benefiting Pennsylvania consumers. 

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