President Joe Biden today will use his latest Wisconsin visit to announce a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build a new artificial intelligence datacenter in Racine County.
Ahead of the president’s stop, the White House said the project is expected to create 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs over time.
Last year, Microsoft began acquiring property in Mt. Pleasant that had originally been set aside for Foxconn. The company also broke ground last fall on a data center before announcing plans to purchase another thousand acres and invest “billions of dollars” at the site over the following decade.
In a fact sheet, the White House sought to contrast the new project with the failure of Foxconn to follow through on its original plans for Wisconsin. The company had promised a $10 billion plant that would employ 13,000 people. Then-President Donald Trump said in summer 2017 that it would be the eighth wonder of the world.
But the company greatly scaled back its plans and in 2021 signed a revised deal with Dem Gov. Tony Evers that called for Foxconn to invest $672 million by the end of 2025 and create 1,451 jobs.
Biden is scheduled to speak at the Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant. The White House said he will announce a partnership between the school and Microsoft to develop a datacenter academy that will train 1,000 Wisconsinites for datacenter and STEM roles by 2030.
Microsoft also plans to build a co-innovation lab in southeastern Wisconsin and team up with the startup accelerator Gener8tor. That partnership will seek to train 1,000 business leaders to adopt AI in their operations.
Gov. Tony Evers called the project a “a watershed moment for Wisconsin.” He said Microsoft will partner with TitletownTech and the Green Bay Packers to establish a manufacturing focused AI co-innovation lab at UW-Milwaukee. It will seek to connect Wisconsin manufacturers, entrepreneurs and companies with Microsoft’s AI experts and developers. The guv said it will be the first of its kind in the U.S.
“Microsoft is a blue-chip corporation that recognizes the strength of Wisconsin’s workers, infrastructure, economy and our quality of life,” Evers said. “Microsoft has chosen to locate and invest here because they know the future is here in Wisconsin.”
— Following the official stop, Biden will participate in a campaign stop to speak with Black voters about the fall election.
Biden’s campaign wrote in a memo those attending the event will be trained on how to use an app that helps them connect with people they know about the upcoming election. The campaign wrote the app — REACH — has been used as part of a first-of-its-kind organizational program in Milwaukee.
The memo also touted the 46 offices the Biden campaign and Dem Coordinated Campaign have opened in Wisconsin and the more than 80 full-time staff on the ground while knocking the Republican National Committee for closing a minority outreach center in Milwaukee.
