Microsoft Corp. has begun hiring employees for its $3.3 billion data center opening in Mount Pleasant in early 2026, and is proceeding with expansion plans at the 1,900 acre-site.
Earlier this year the company paused work on the expansion sites as it evaluated the buildout strategy. The latest work in Mount Pleasant will be in addition to what the company pledged in May 2024, a Microsoft spokesman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"We’re now preparing our plans to proceed with that expansion," the spokesman said.
The company says that by the end of 2026 it will have around 500 employees and contractors running the Racine County center.
“We’ve already begun to hire full-time employees that will support our operational phase,” the spokesman said, not offering further information.
Data centers housing thousands of computer servers are springing up across the country, enabling activities such as social media, streaming video and ChatGPT.
In Wisconsin, Microsoft has led the way with its project in Mount Pleasant. The company has plans for a smaller project in Kenosha.
Data centers planned in Caledonia, Port Washington
A pitch for a data center in Caledonia, in Racine County, recently ran into resistance as community members spoke out against rezoning 240 acres of farmland. It would be along Douglas Avenue and Botting Road, near the We Energies power plant in neighboring Oak Creek.
The Caledonia Plan Commission postponed a July 28 vote until at least late August to give the developer more time to address concerns.
"As often happens, we are putting the cart before the horse. We don't know any specifics of the proposed data center, who the owners would be, what their reputation is, what economic benefit it would bring the Village in terms of tax base (and) jobs," Caledonia Trustee Fran Martin said, in a statement.
In Beaver Dam, site work is underway for a data center on 830 acres near U.S. Highway 151 and County Road A.
Beaver Dam officials have declined to name the developer of their planned center.
Bloomberg News has cited an unnamed source to report its developer is Facebook parent company Meta and that it's a nearly $1 billion project.
Denver-based Vantage Data Systems is planning a data center in rural Port Washington that’s still in the planning stage. It has already resulted in more than 700 acres of property acquisitions.
QTS Data Centers, of Virginia, has eyed the Town of Vienna in Dane County for a project.
Wisconsin Rapids has plans for a $200 million data center, and Janesville recently announced that it’s seeking one for the former General Motors vehicle assembly plant that’s been vacant since 2008.
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