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The $3.3 billion data-center hub Microsoft Corp. confirmed Wednesday for Mount Pleasant could very well be the first of several phases in Racine County, but the company's president Brad Smith told the Milwaukee Business Journal he’s not ready to go there.
“This is phase one — this is what we do between now and 2026,” Smith said in a brief interview. “We are trying to be thoughtful, methodical — go step by step. Let’s under-promise and over-deliver.”
During an interview after an announcement event at Gateway Technical College's Sturtevant campus, Smith said it’s possible the complex could expand to four times the size the company currently plans. But time will tell, he said.
“Let’s not say everything that might happen in 10 years,” Smith said. “Ten years is a long ways away, so let's take two or three years at a time. But we fully hope and expect to do more.”
Smith said Microsoft will announce the next phase “when that comes together.”
Milwaukee-area economic development leaders said off the record that they expect Microsoft to expand well beyond the project announced Wednesday. However, those leaders declined to comment after attending Wednesday’s event that quite notably ended with remarks from President Joe Biden.
Microsoft's multibillion-dollar project is slated for property in the village of Mount Pleasant originally assembled for Foxconn, the Taiwan electronics company and Apple supplier that in 2018 announced a $10 billion investment to make large LCD screens. Foxconn would later largely abandon those plans.
Local impact of AI data center
The event was attended by about 200 invitees that included labor-union representatives, business executives, nonprofit leaders and education leaders.
During his prepared remarks, Smith said he loves the Mount Pleasant project because his family farm during his childhood years was on land included in the Microsoft development parcels.
Smith touted the impact of the data center project and Microsoft’s plans to train workers for jobs in artificial intelligence at Gateway Tech, partner with the United Way of Racine on worker training and partner with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on an AI co-innovation lab.
“More than anything this project is about using the power of AI to fuel the future of manufacturing companies and jobs and skills across the state of Wisconsin and around the country,” he said.
Smith said the most exciting new initiative is the planned lab on the UWM campus that would connect local manufacturers with Microsoft AI experts and developers. The facility will be at the existing UWM Connected Systems Institute in the Golda Meir Library.
Smith said hundreds of Wisconsin manufacturers will benefit from the program, helping the state’s manufacturers remain at the forefront of their industry.
UW-Milwaukee chancellor Mark Mone, who attended the event at Gateway Tech, said Microsoft will build out space with new work stations and technology within the Connected Systems Institute. Microsoft employees will be on site to collaborate on advancing manufacturing in Wisconsin.
Milwaukee-based industrial automation and software firm Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) is a partner in the institute.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring a lot of things together,” Mone said.
Buckley Brinkley, executive director and CEO of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity, attended the event and said the initiatives at UWM and Gateway Tech will help make Wisconsin manufacturers more competitive — as will the new data center complex.
“With this center here in Racine, it will make us competitive with the whole world,” Brinkman said. “It will be a lightning rod for the advanced technology.”