MOUNT PLEASANT, WIS. — Microsoft has unveiled plans to invest $3.3 billion between now and the end of 2026 in the development of a data center campus in Mount Pleasant, about 28 miles south of Milwaukee. The tech giant plans to expand its national cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure capacity.
The project is expected to bring 2,300 unionized construction jobs to the area by 2025, as well as to provide long-term employment opportunities over the next several years. Along with building a physical data center, Microsoft will partner with Gateway Technical College to construct a data center academy. This facility will serve to train and certify more than 1,000 students over the course of five years to work in the new data center and IT sector.
U.S. President Joe Biden joined Microsoft President Brad Smith and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers at Gateway Technical College on Wednesday for the announcement.
“This is a watershed moment for Wisconsin and a critical part of our work to build a 21st-century workforce and economy in the Badger State,” says Evers.
Microsoft’s data center is being built where former President Donald Trump had previously announced a $10 billion investment from Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn. Those plans largely failed to materialize. Foxconn scaled back to a $672 million investment and 1,454 jobs instead of 13,000, according to CNBC.
Microsoft will pair its data center investment with a broad investment package designed to strengthen the role of Southeast Wisconsin as a hub for AI-powered economic activity, innovation and job creation. These investments include the creation of an AI co-innovation lab and an AI skilling initiative to equip more than 100,000 of the state’s residents with essential AI skills.
The manufacturing-focused AI co-innovation lab will be established on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The lab will be connected to Green Bay’s Titletown Tech, a venture capital fund that is a partnership between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and Microsoft. The lab will connect Wisconsin manufacturers, entrepreneurs and established companies with Microsoft’s AI experts and developers to design and prototype AI and cloud solutions. Microsoft expects the lab to serve 270 Wisconsin companies by 2030, including 135 manufacturing businesses.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) is providing a $500,000 grant to support capital improvements necessary for the success of the lab. WEDC is also providing a $500,000 grant to assist TitletownTech in opening a new office within the lab.
— Kristin Harlow