With Gov. Tony Evers calling it a “watershed moment for Wisconsin” and President Joe Biden calling it “transformative,”
Microsoft made waves in 2024 with its plan to build a $3.3 billion artificial intelligence data center in Mount Pleasant.
The investment, to be made through the end of 2026, was announced in May, along with several corresponding community partnerships involving the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant.
Microsoft has more than 300 data centers around the world, but its Mount Pleasant campus will be among the most cutting-edge facilities the company has ever built, Microsoft says.
“We are going to be building among the world’s most advanced AI and cloud data centers that you will see anywhere,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, during a press conference held earlier this year. “This isn’t just about building a building, and it’s not just about the manufacturing jobs of today. More than anything, this project is about using the future of AI to fuel the future of manufacturing companies and jobs and skills across the state of Wisconsin and around the country.”
The data center complex is being built on land where Foxconn had planned to build a massive LCD screen manufacturing complex. Originally touted as a $10 billion project that would create 13,000 jobs, Foxconn’s development has been far short of those plans, and much of the land where it had planned to build is now instead being developed by Microsoft.
The fanfare surrounding Microsoft’s plans has conjured flashbacks of Foxconn’s undelivered promises, but Microsoft is planning to “under-promise and over-deliver,” Biden said when announcing the project. In recognition of its massive investment in the region’s economy, Microsoft is the BizTimes Milwaukee 2024 Corporation of the Year.
Currently, Microsoft is working on three different sites in Mount Pleasant. Construction work at 4800 90th St. began last year on 1.1 million square feet of data center space across three buildings and is expected to be completed in 2026. Just west of that site, work began this year on 1.3 million square feet of data center space. At 11508 Braun Road, site work began this year for a project that will bring 2 million square feet of data center space across six buildings.
Designed to support Microsoft’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure, the data center project is expected to create 2,000 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs over time.
A Microsoft spokesperson said that as of July, the project has an average of 1,900 construction workers on-site daily, with that number expected to increase to 2,300 by next summer. Microsoft declined to provide more details on the permanent jobs and when recruiting for those positions will begin.
In addition to the data center project, through a partnership with Green Bay-based venture capital firm TitletownTech and the Green Bay Packers, Microsoft will establish a manufacturing focused AI Co-Innovation Lab on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the first of its kind in the United States, according to Evers.
Microsoft announced its first 315-acre Mount Pleasant data center project back in March of 2023 and moved to significantly expand those plans in November 2023, when the Village of Mount Pleasant shared that the company would purchase an additional 1,030 acres.
Since then – and since the announcement of the expanded data center project – Microsoft has also been assembling a site north of its current Mount Pleasant land holdings, purchasing hundreds of acres from dozens of landowners, marking some of the priciest real estate deals of the year. Microsoft has not announced plans for this land.
“Wisconsin has a rich and storied legacy of innovation and ingenuity in manufacturing,” Smith said. “…This is what a big company can do to build a strong foundation for every medium, small and startup company and non-profit everywhere.”
