Microsoft Says 375 Workers Hired for Mount Pleasant Data Center
Building 'the world’s most powerful AI datacenter'?
The sun sets as construction continues at Microsoft’s data center project Nov. 13, 2025, in Mount Pleasant, Wis. Joe Timmerman/ Wisconsin Watch
Microsoft has hired around 375 people for full-time positions in Wisconsin and that number could grow to 800 by the time the company finishes its second data center in Racine County, according to a company spokesperson.
In recent weeks, the company has been bringing equipment online and conducting startup activities at its first data center in the village of Mount Pleasant, the spokesperson said. The company expects those limited operations to continue in the coming weeks.
According to Microsoft, the company has hired around 375 employees for full-time roles and plans to hire another 125 for the first data center. Microsoft expects the number of employees to grow to around 800 when the second data center, currently under construction, is completed.
The spokespersons said potential expansions at the site could represent hundreds of additional jobs. The company is planning 15 more data centers in Mount Pleasant.
The company had several job openings in Milwaukee and Mount Pleasant on its website as of Monday, including for positions like data center technician manager, mechanical engineer and critical environment program manager. Annual salaries ranged from around $75,000 to more than $200,000.
Beyond hiring efforts, the village of Mount Pleasant says the company is ahead of schedule in hitting its property value growth targets.
Village of Mount Pleasant spokesperson Sean Ryan said in an email that Microsoft has met or is on pace to surpass its construction timeline and the property value commitments it made in its development agreement with the village.
“Construction of its first two phases are years ahead of those deadlines,” Ryan said. “Microsoft committed to create over $1.4 billion in new Mount Pleasant property value by 2028, and already surpassed that amount this year.”
Microsoft’s project isn’t the only data center under construction in Wisconsin. Oracle and Open AI are developing a data campus in Port Washington and Meta is building one in Beaver Dam.
In late April, Dale Kooyenga, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that data centers would generate “thousands” of permanent jobs — in addition to the thousands of construction jobs those projects are already supporting.
“These aren’t short term construction jobs,” he said. “These are construction jobs that are going to take place over years and years.”
And more data centers could be coming to the state.
Construction is ongoing on the first phase of Microsoft’s data center project in Mount Pleasant on March 11, 2025. Photo courtesy of Microsoft
Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a data center developer that helped get the Port Washington project off the ground, is eying northeast Wisconsin for an AI data center.
The president of the parent company of We Energies, the utility serving Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant project, hinted that more hyperscale data centers could be coming. During an earnings call last week, he said the company hopes to make another announcement this fall.
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Commissioner Kristy Nieto also said last week that more could be on the way in Alliant Energy’s service territory.
“There are 12 other data center plans in the works for Alliant’s territory,” she said at a PSC meeting. “Some or all may come to fruition.”
But similar projects have faced increasing backlash in recent months. Marquette Law School polling shows about 70 percent of Wisconsinites believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits.
Much of the criticism facing data centers has been tied to concerns around those projects’ potential water and energy usage.
A 2025 Clean Wisconsin analysis found that data centers in Mount Pleasant and Port Washington would require enough energy to power 4.3 million homes, which is more than all the housing units in Wisconsin.
Testimony filed with the Public Service Commission also said those two projects could double We Energies’ electricity demand by 2030.
The PSC recently approved a plan from We Energies, setting rates for data center-scale customers in the utility’s service territory. That plan will apply both to Microsoft’s project in Mount Pleasant and Oracle’s Port Washington development.
Regulators also required Alliant Energy to develop electric rates for all data center-scale customers in its service area in approving a plan for a rate contract for Meta’s project in Beaver Dam.
Microsoft says it has hired around 375 people for its Mount Pleasant data center was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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