The G20 Finance Track discussions in Asheville came to a close on Tuesday evening, after a days-long flurry of international activity at the Omni Grove Park Inn.
The historic hotel served as a home base for hundreds of global finance leaders, journalists and corporate executives who gathered to address some of the most pressing issues facing the global economy, including inflation, artificial intelligence and the United States’ war with Iran.
The event spurred an estimated $2 million in direct spending for Asheville, according to preliminary estimates from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. It also brought a global spotlight to the region’s fraught and uneven recovery from Hurricane Helene – inspiring some residents to take to streets in demand of more federal aid.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, who owns a home in Jackson County, called Asheville a “comeback city” and declared that the event has put the area “on the map globally.”
“I believe America knows about Asheville, but now I think… in the past few days, the world has discovered Asheville,” he said.
Bessent went on to claim that the G20 events are projected to bring a total economic impact of $20 million to the area – but BPR was not able to independently confirm that number with local officials.
Many of the conversations at the G20 were not fully open to the media – and some national and local outlets say they were not credentialed to attend at all. The Washington Post reported that select journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News were not granted credentials. Asheville Watchdog also wrote that its reporters, as well as Mountain Xpress, did not receive credentials.
For the press in attendance, movement was restricted at the venue, with members of the press largely confined to a designated, off-site media center, except for a few public events that included a Sunday evening media reception and a fireside chat and press briefing on Tuesday.
A lunch event with Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday was originally slated as open to the press, but G20 staff told BPR they made the decision to close the event that morning.
There were also opportunities for reporters to attend short previews of the “plenaries” – the formal sessions of G20 members – but only reporters who were part of the official press pool were able to attend.
At the Tuesday press briefing, set on the Grove Park Inn’s swelteringly hot stone terrace, Bessent offered a recap of what was discussed during the private sessions, touching on inflation, deregulation and trade imbalances with China, among other things.
When asked a question about the United States’ growing artificial intelligence industry, he voiced optimism and support.
“The US will be an AI superpower,” he said, predicting that the country will account for 80% of the world’s total AI computing capacity by 2028.
He acknowledged the growing criticism around data centers, but did not elaborate on the numerous environmental concerns that communities nationwide have voiced about them.
"The fact is that this can be transformative,” he said. “I think that the AI companies, whether it is the builders of the data centers, whether it is the labs themselves, have done a horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people and I think we need a big reset on this.”
Bessent’s support for data centers runs counter to popular opinion in Western North Carolina.
Asheville, and a number of other local governments, have passed moratoriums on the facilities over concerns about water consumption, electricity demand and noise.
The Asheville meetings are part of a yearlong series of G20 events hosted by the United States, which holds the rotating G20 presidency this year.
The events are continuing Wednesday in Chapel Hill, where an Innovation Ministerial conference is addressing artificial intelligence and technology and will culminate with the G20 Leaders’ Summit, slated for mid-December in Miami.
