From
JSOnline :
Ricardo Torres Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Microsoft is making a $7.3 billion bet on data centers in Racine County -- a sum that almost surely will grow -- that it hopes will pay off in the future, despite uncertainty about the economy and AI.
“Right now, what we really strive to ensure is that Microsoft is a source of digital stability and a source of economic stability,” said Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“And we live in a time where we all could benefit from, I’ll just say, both change and stability. Depending on how you look in the world.”
The company has announced two major data centers in Mount Pleasant that carry a combined price tag of $7.3 billion. And that's just the projects that have been announced with a price tag attached. Another smaller scale project is proposed for nearby Caledonia, and the company has indicated plans for additional data centers both in Racine and Kenosha counties. The first, a $3.3 billion Mount Pleasant data center, is expected to be online in mid-2026. On Sept. 18 , Microsoft announced a second $4 billion data center next to the first one, scheduled to open in 2028.
Both data centers are in “Area 3” which is a holdover name from when the massive site was assembled for the failed Foxconn Technology Group project.
Microsoft also has the rights to build on Area 2 of the property, north of Braun Road, which is significantly larger than the data center areas.
When asked what the company’s plans were for that area, Smith gave no major details.
“Let’s just say we’re not there to grow corn,” Smith said. “This is all part of a long-term vision, an opportunity to continue to grow the super-computing capacity that one now finds Wisconsin leading the world in providing. We are buying for the future and at the same time we’ll continue to take it one step at a time.”
Microsoft has been deliberate in its approach to how it plans to build in Wisconsin. The company paused development of the project in Mount Pleasant during the spring, a move that caused some concern among observers.
Smith said the pause came because the company was "assessing demand overall for AI and the other was assessing what kind of data center would make the most sense to build here for the second phase."
"And right now here we are in the fall of ‘25 and I think across the industry people recognize that at least for the next couple of years, the biggest challenge is going to be keeping up with demand, not getting ahead of it," Smith said.
"It was the right time to for us to pause and we continued to have conversations with elected leaders in the state to say, ‘Have faith. We’ll deliver. We don’t want to promise until we know what we’re going to deliver but give us some time and we’re going to come through.’ And obviously we have."
From: https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2025/09/29/despite-uncertainty-microsoft-optimistic-about-wisconsin-data-centers/86296730007/
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