PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania’s top lawmakers put up a united front on Tuesday to emphasize to the hundreds of tech and energy investors at Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) inaugural innovation summit the benefits of working with states that embrace bipartisanship and the national security imperatives of investing domestically.

The Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit brought top tech and energy executives to Carnegie Mellon University’s campus, home to one of the world’s most advanced AI programs. Tuesday’s gathering also included the state’s two leading Democrats, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), and President Donald Trump, all of whom praised the conference as a strategic way to promote U.S. investment to the scores of foreign and American leaders in attendance.

Amazon Web Services’ $20 billion investment last month in three computing and AI campuses in the Keystone State was “an indicator of all that we can be when we harness the new things that we have going for us, and when we have government and the private sector working together, not at odds, and when we pull in our educational institutions … in a way that really helps move Pennsylvania forward,” Shapiro said during a panel discussion with McCormick and AWS CEO Matt Garman. 

While McCormick and Shapiro acknowledged their political differences, they said they agreed that their state should be on the forefront of the technological innovation and investment happening in the United States. They also said they share the view that a unified team of statewide leaders is more appealing to outside investors and businesses than an assortment that’s at odds with each other.  

“I look at this moment as a business guy, and so I say one of two things: If I’m a business guy, what do I want?” McCormick asked. “I want to come to a place that has all those ingredients and has uniform political leadership. … If you’re a CEO and you want to invest a bunch of money and you come in and sit down, you meet the governor and he’s talking bad about me and saying that I’m full of it, and vice versa, that makes you not want to invest, right? So we need to be aligned at all levels.”

“The governor and I are of different parties, we have plenty of differences, but on this, we agree. Sen. Fetterman was at our dinner last night. On this, we agree that we need to be at the crossroads of the energy revolution, the AI revolution. To have a leadership position, we need to show a unified front at the local level, at the state level, at the national level. That’s the only way to win,” McCormick continued. 

The conversation, which took place as hundreds of AI and energy firms courted investors at tables around the Jared L. Cohon University Center on Carnegie Mellon’s campus, followed panel discussions from senior tech and finance executives about winning the race for AI and energy domination domestically and the benefits of investing in the Keystone State.

Shapiro and McCormick separately said that they view Pennsylvania as a purple state that requires bipartisan cooperation to push any legislation across the finish line. 

“As a candidate, I promised I would get things done, and in Pennsylvania, you can’t get things done unless you’re able to work with people who you disagree with on certain things and find areas of common agreement,” McCormick said. “We can agree that we’ve got to have great jobs in Pennsylvania, we’ve got to take advantage of our energy resources, like there is so much to agree on. So I think this is a particularly special moment for Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro noted that his first two years as governor took place under a Republican state Senate, forcing him to reach across the aisle and find common ground on areas such as economic and education policy, before noting that he still takes issue with major GOP policy priorities such as Trump’s budget reconciliation bill.

“The last two years, I was the only governor in the entire country with a divided legislature. Senate led by Republicans, a House led by Democrats. This year, I think there’s one or two other governors with the same. For me to get any bill to my desk requires votes from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. And I think if you enter every discussion focusing on your differences, you’ll never get anything done,” Shapiro said.

“We’re honest about differing on the bill that was just passed, the reconciliation bill that was just passed last week,” he added of his disagreements with McCormick. “But we also understand how critically important it is to grow our economy in Pennsylvania, this unique moment that we are in.”

Fetterman, who returned to Washington on Tuesday for Senate business, told Jewish Insider in a statement that he was fully supportive of the summit and the unity push by McCormick and Shapiro.

“Party aside, we’re all in – on Pennsylvania’s best interests,” Fetterman told JI, adding that he sent his “congratulations to Sen. McCormick for putting this tremendous event together for Pennsylvania’s future.”

McCormick later highlighted in his discussion with Shapiro and Garman the need for Pennsylvania and the U.S. to keep up with the rest of the world in economic development. 

“If you travel around the world, if you go to the Middle East, if you go to other places, the pace of change is extraordinary. And it’s gonna require a level of urgency that I don’t think most people in this room have probably had in the past about this moment, particularly in Pennsylvania. And so that urgency, we need to grab the moment,” the senator said. 

In response, Shapiro pointed out that one of McCormick’s top takeaways from his recent visit to the Middle East was the potential for U.S. investments from new partners.

“The senator, and I think Dina [Powell McCormick] as well, went to the Middle East a month or two ago, and we talked right when he came back. One of the things you were most jazzed up about, I thought, were the investments that folks in the Middle East shared with you that they wanted to make in America and how you were pitching Pennsylvania as part of that,” Shapiro said.

“This is a global race for both energy dominance and AI dominance. We need home-grown Pennsylvanians to be doing this work, and we need investment from all across the country and all across the globe. We do not want China to beat us in this AI race. This is one of the most important national security questions we have, and so if the senator and others can bring investment from around the globe to right here in Pennsylvania,” he continued.

During the president’s roundtable discussion with McCormick, leading executives and several members of his Cabinet, Trump touted the $5.1 trillion in domestic investments he claimed to have secured on his last visit to the Middle East while cheering the $90 billion in committed U.S. projects announced at the summit.

“Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pittsburgh and I have to say right here in the United States of America,” Trump said. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described the president’s “vision of energy dominance” as the “foundation of this golden age for America.” 

“You identified that there were a couple of threats to our country. One was Iran having a nuclear weapon. The other was losing the AI arms race to China. You took care of one of those a few weeks ago. You’re helping to take care of the other one here,” Burgum said of Trump’s agenda, prompting a smile from the president. 

McCormick then noted that Trump’s attendance at the summit helped boost interest from industry leaders and investors alike. “I really believe, Mr. President, based on you being here, we’re going to look back on this day and say that this was a real, seminal moment in the history of our Commonwealth and maybe in the history of our country,” he told the president. 

Trump then remarked that while McCormick had initially only asked him to make a brief appearance at the gathering, he decided to stay for longer once he saw the industry leaders on the high-profile guest list. 

“When I saw the people gathered, I said, ‘I’m not leaving. I want to learn something.’ And I have learned something. This is the smartest group of talent, probably, that you’ve ever had in terms of energy and even finance, [that you’ve] ever had in one room,” Trump remarked to the crowd.

Following the Israel-Iran ceasefire and amid questions about the extent of the damage Israel and the U.S. inflicted on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, an important piece of news flew under the radar: Azerbaijan’s national energy company, SOCAR, finalized its purchase of a 10% stake in Israel’s Tamar gas field. 

The deal and its timing amid hesitation from other countries that have considered investing in Israel, reflect a growing strategic partnership between Jerusalem and Baku — one that has garnered increasing pressure from Iran toward Azerbaijan.

The day after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced toward the end of last month, Union Energy, owned by Israeli businessman Aharon Frenkel, received the final approval from Israel’s Petroleum Council and Competition Authority to sell half its shares of the gas field in the Mediterranean, which provides 60-70% of Israel’s electricity each year, to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR. Chevron owns 25% of the Tamar field and the UAE’s Mudabala owns an 11% stake.

Jerusalem and Baku have had relations since 1992, soon after the latter’s independence from the Soviet Union, and in 2023, Azerbaijan became the first Shi’ite Muslim-majority country to open an embassy in Israel. 

Azerbaijan supplies as much as two-thirds of Israel’s oil, and Israel was the largest supplier of arms to Azerbaijan from 2016-2020. Israel continued to sell drones and missiles to Baku during its war with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karbach region in 2020, as well as satellites and a missile-interception system in 2023, during another war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. 

A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable posted on Wikileaks described cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan in terms that are still apt today: The relationship between Jerusalem and Baku is “an iceberg; nine-tenths of it is below the surface,” the cable stated. 

Azerbaijan also shares a 475-mile border with Iran. The cable noted that “much like Israel, Azerbaijan perceives Iran as a major, even existential security threat, and [for] the two countries, cooperation flows from this shared recognition … Even open sources have identified an extensive relationship between the countries’ intelligence services … and it only stands to reason that this remains a major area of cooperation, which both sides naturally seek to downplay.”

Some parts of that relationship have surfaced: for example, that Israel smuggled Iran’s archive out via Azerbaijan in 2018. 

Three years ago, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, during a time of tensions with Iran, staged a photo-op of himself stroking an Israeli attack drone, after Tehran accused Baku of allowing Israel to “establish its presence in several regions of Azerbaijan.” 

There had been persistent reports, going back over a decade, that Israel plans to use Azerbaijan’s airbases for a strike on Iran, which Baku and Jerusalem have consistently denied. 

Tehran latched onto that theory at the onset of Israel’s 12-day operation targeting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. 

The day the Israeli strikes began, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry condemned “the escalation,” urging diplomacy, and a day after that, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov told his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, that Azerbaijan would not be used to attack Iran. 

When the operation ended, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said that commandos operated “on the ground,” but the military later clarified he meant in a nearby unspecified country.

On June 26, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with Aliyev that Baku must “investigate and verify” reports that Israeli drones entered Iran via Azerbaijan. Aliyev denied that his country’s territory was used. 

While the IDF has not publicized the details of every IAF flight to Iran, it has mentioned in its statements the long distances of flights, making it clear that Israel has the capability to fly directly to the Islamic Republic. 

Farid Shafiyev, the chairman of the Baku-sponsored think tank Center for Analysis of International Relations, dismissed the pressure from Iran.

“The latest round of accusations is probably because Iran’s air defense was decimated and not capable of defense. The people in charge, especially the military establishment, are trying to find scapegoats,” Shafiyev told Jewish Insider. “My understanding is that different factions in the Iranian establishment are trying to blame someone outside of Iran for the failures of their military system.”

Shafiyev argued that “if Azerbaijan was somehow a part of [Israel’s operation in iran] it would be known by major intelligence agencies or by the media. It’s fake news.” 

Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have had ups and downs, such as the attack on Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran in 2023, he said, “but lately we have managed to maintain our relationship.” Pezeshkian even visited Baku last week for a regional economic conference, suggesting that the latest round of tensions between the countries may have subsided.

“If Iran were to try to exert pressure on someone, Azerbaijan would be a likely target because of that open relationship with Israel and Azerbaijan’s assets connected to the much larger global [energy] grid, supplying oil and gas to Turkey and Europe, in addition to Israel,” Gabriel Mitchell, the director of undergraduate studies at Notre Dame’s Jerusalem campus and an expert on the intersection between energy and security policy, said.

Gabriel Mitchell, the director of undergraduate studies at Notre Dame’s Jerusalem campus and an expert on the intersection between energy and security policy, told JI that “the dynamic with Iran is very serious.”

“If you consider all of the things that have happened over the 20 months of war [in Gaza],” Mitchell said, “such as [Iranian President Ebrahim] Raisi dying in a helicopter crash [that originated in] Azerbaijan, the escalation between Israel and Iran, and it is no secret the degree to which Israel and Azerbaijan have collaborated on security issues in the last decade and a half, it’s natural for Iran to start pointing fingers.”

“If Iran were to try to exert pressure on someone, Azerbaijan would be a likely target because of that open relationship with Israel and Azerbaijan’s assets connected to the much larger global [energy] grid, supplying oil and gas to Turkey and Europe, in addition to Israel,” he said.

Mitchell noted that there is a large ethnic Azeri minority in Iran, and Iran’s pressure on Azerbaijan also sends a message to that minority to curb any rebellious aspirations.

“Iranian pressure may have nothing to do with Israel and more to do with internal politics,” he added. “It’s impossible for them to flex against Israel right now and they’re not going to act against the Gulf states, so Azerbaijan is a soft middle ground that has a complicated relationship with Iran.”

Despite the ongoing backlash from Iran over ties with Israel, Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR buying a stake in Israel’s Tamar gas field indicates that Baku is not hiding or backing down from a close relationship with Jerusalem.

“SOCAR is not an independent company,” Mitchell said, “so [the deal] is signalling not only to Israel but to the region and the U.S. that Azerbaijan is interested in cooperating with Israel … and wants to be part of broader regional arrangements in a more constructive way.”

The sale of a significant stake in a gas field in the eastern Mediterranean “stands in contrast with anything else going on in the region,” Mitchell said. “Very few companies are interested in making investments in the EastMed natural gas scene right now for understandable reasons, not only because of the war, but … Egypt has economic issues with being able to fulfill payments, which has dampened interest from oil and gas companies in investing in the region.”

“That SOCAR decided to take this leap is rare, and for that reason it should be applauded. It’s only a good thing for Israel,” he added. “I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies saw it as a green light for them to invest.” 

The investment is also likely to benefit Azerbaijan as Tamar is a very reliable gas field, Mitchell said: “Azerbaijan can always say, ‘Set aside geopolitics, we’re just here for the money.’”

“When it comes to Turkey,” said Farid Shafiyev, the chairman of the Baku-sponsored think tank Center for Analysis of International Relations, “Israelis should understand that we are very close, we are military allies … Overall, I think there is room for diplomacy and Azerbaijan can play a role.” 

Azerbaijan had the confidence to invest in the Tamar field, Shafiyev said, “because we believe the conflicts in the Middle East will not cause a major crisis that will make the fields inaccessible.”

The bilateral ties have withstood the souring relationship between Azerbaijan’s strongest ally, Turkey, and Israel, and Baku has at times served as a mediator between them.

“When it comes to Turkey,” Shafiyev said, “Israelis should understand that we are very close, we are military allies … Overall, I think there is room for diplomacy and Azerbaijan can play a role.” 

The Azerbaijan-Israel relationship also remains stable despite the war in Gaza and beyond, Shafiyev said, because it rests on a decades-long foundation. He also cited the longstanding community in Azerbaijan of Mountain Jews, a population that has inhabited the eastern and northern Caucasus since the fifth century.

Roman Gurevich, the Jewish Agency’s honorary ambassador in Azerbaijan, who is well-connected in the government in Baku, said that “the deep-rooted friendship between the Jewish and Azerbaijani peoples has naturally evolved into the warm relationship Azerbaijan now shares with the State of Israel. When the brutal Hamas attack occurred on Oct. 7, [2023], ordinary citizens in Baku brought memorial candles and flowers to the Israeli Embassy in a spontaneous outpouring of solidarity.”

“Regardless of outside pressure or hostility, Azerbaijan remains committed to its friendship and strategic alliance with Israel and the Jewish world,” Gurevich added. “A strong, independent Azerbaijan that honors its friends and knows how to defend its interests is an invaluable ally for Israel.”