The AI data center will result in 2,300 union construction jobs and around 2,000 permanent jobs over time, said the White House
President Joe Biden announced this week Microsoft’s plans to build a $3.3 billion artificial intelligence (AI) data center at the failed Foxconn site in Racine, Wisconsin. Microsoft President Brad Smith indicated that the total investments will be made by the end of 2026.
In 2017, Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump announced that the site in Southeastern Wisconsin would become home to a massive Foxconn manufacturing site. Initially, the Taiwan electronics manufacturing company said it would be making a $10 billion investment into the site; however, this was later significantly scaled back to $672 million. Ultimately, the project fell apart.
Now, Biden said he is back in Racine, where the decline in manufacturing jobs has hit hard, to “talk about a great comeback story in America.”
“My predecessor made promises, which he broke,” Biden said. “On my watch, we make promises, and we keep promises,” he said to a crowd at Gateway Technical College’s Sturtevant campus, adding that the impact of Microsoft’s investment will be “transformative.”
According to the White House, the AI data center will result in 2,300 union construction jobs and around 2,000 permanent jobs over time. Microsoft will also partner with Gateway Technical College to train 1,000 people in AI and data skills by 2030, as well as 1,000 business leaders to help them adopt AI in their operations.
“We will train over 100,000 people in Wisconsin by the end of the decade, so they have the AI skills to fill the jobs of tomorrow,” Microsoft’s Smith said.
