Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced plans to invest $3.3 billion in a data center in southeastern Wisconsin focused on artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
The tech giant will invest the funds over the next three years and expects to create over 2,000 permanent jobs for residents and 2,300 union construction jobs. The new data center will focus on helping American companies develop and deploy AI to grow and modernize their products and services.
President Joe Biden accompanied Microsoft President Brad Smith to the Gateway Technical College’s Sturtevant campus, where they officially unveiled the plans. The planned data center is set to be built at the same site where Taiwanese giant Foxconn announced a $10 billion investment in 2017 that fell through years later.
“Wisconsin has a rich and storied legacy of innovation and ingenuity in manufacturing. We will use the power of AI to help advance the next generation of manufacturing companies, skills and jobs in Wisconsin and across the country,” commented Smith.
Microsoft also pledged to partner with Gateway Technical College to build a training institution to educate over 1,000 students on emerging technology over the next five years.
The Redmond-based giant further pledged to establish an AI Co-Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The lab will be the seventh globally, joining two others in the U.S. and others in Germany, Japan, China, and Uruguay. It will be the first on a university campus.
The lab is expected to assist companies in Wisconsin and beyond in designing and implementing AI solutions in their businesses. Microsoft projects that it will help at least 270 Wisconsin companies by 2030.
Other Microsoft initiatives in the Badger State will include upskilling over 100,000 people on generative AI, certifying over 3,000 local AI developers, and implementing vast youth employment programs.
Microsoft continues to invest heavily in AI as the arms race with fellow Big Tech giants like Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) heats up. The firm has recently pledged to invest $3.2 billion in Germany, nearly $3 billion in Japan, $2.2 billion in Malaysia, $2.1 billion in Spain, $1.7 billion in Indonesia and $1.5 billion in the UAE.
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