Microsoft Buys Yet More Land in Racine County
Now has 1,270-acre campus in area where Foxconn failed to build massive development.
An artificial intelligence data center is built on land once slated for development by Foxconn in Mount Pleasant on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Mount Pleasant, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Less than a month after buying roughly 170 acres in Racine County, Microsoft has acquired even more land for its $3.3 billion data center campus.
Microsoft purchased 70.9 acres of mostly vacant land in Mount Pleasant for $12.75 million, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue online records.
The sale was recorded Tuesday. Like the 173 acres purchased last month, the land acquired in August is located along Louis Sorenson Road. It’s near the main data center development site, according to a project overview. The company also bought 32.1 acres on the road back in May.
In late 2023, Mount Pleasant officials approved Microsoft’s purchase of more than 1,000 acres that were initially meant for Foxconn’s plans for a massive $9 billion development that would create 13,000 jobs. Foxconn’s promises never came to fruition.
With the closing recorded this week, Microsoft now owns more than 1,270 acres in Racine County.
In May, Microsoft announced it would spend $3.3 billion on the project, expanding on its initial plan of spending $1 billion on data centers in Mount Pleasant.
Officials have said the project is expected to bring more than 2,000 union construction jobs to the area by the end of the year. As part of its plans in the state, Microsoft has also said it will work with the United Way Wisconsin to provide artificial intelligence skills training for more than 100,000 Wisconsinites by 2030.
Microsoft buys more land in Racine County near data center project was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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“Officials have said the project is expected to bring more than 2,000 union construction jobs to the area….” From Chicago? Or from SE and SC Wisconsin?
I hope Kamala Harris uses this story in her campaign. Trump and Walker promoted this great economic development with a company that is well known for backing out of the deals they negotiate. Now Microsoft is going to create the type of 21st Century innovation campus that Foxconn was suppose to be.
Remind us again…how much taxpayer money did TRUMP, WALKER, and KLEEYFISCH give away to a Chinese company to buy American land…make a profit, and then write it off of their American taxes… thus bilking us out of collecting it back)? “The largest attempted government handout to a foreign company in American history.” ($3, count um, three billion)?
If it seems too good to be true….
Is this facility going to cannibalize or close other MS facilities?
It seems strangely large for a technology whose apparatus
is ever shrinking. Are water/mineral rights involved?
Or, is this ranch/pasture for BeelzeGates’ Beelzebugs?
Some other ‘aggrivature’ project?
Will they snoop United Way’s databases, sniffing for surplus wealth,
political or philosophical orientation?