Microsoft Announces $4B Expansion to Planned Wisconsin Data Center

The latest development raises the company's total investment to more than $7 billion.

Microsoft Ai
Microsoft

Microsoft announced plans to invest an additional $4 billion to expand its planned data center campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The latest development raises the company's total investment to more than $7 billion.

According to Microsoft officials, the company plans to build a second data center, which will be similar in size and scale and in the same area at a cost of approximately $4 billion by the end of 2028. The data center campus in Mount Pleasant is part of a distributed training supercomputer spanning multiple locations.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers revealed in 2023 that Microsoft planned to invest billions of dollars to establish a data center Mount Pleasant. Last May, the company officials confirmed that it would invest $3.3 billion by the end of 2026 in the project, bringing thousands of union construction jobs to the area.

Microsoft expects to complete construction and begin operations on the AI data center in early 2026 and has begun hiring full-time workers.

Construction of the first data center has provided jobs for almost 10,000 Wisconsin workers, including more than 3,000 construction workers during peak operations, including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pipefitters, structural iron and steel workers, concrete workers and earth movers. The company expects the second data center to require a similar workforce.

Microsoft also established a Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where hundreds of owners of small and medium-sized businesses can learn how to use AI.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will provide a $500,000 grant to support capital improvements necessary for the success of the lab.

Following Microsoft’s initial commitment, Evers signed bipartisan legislation in the 2023-25 Biennial Budget designed to put the state in a more competitive position for data center investments. Wisconsin's designation as a Regional Tech Hub acted as a catalyst for Microsoft’s decision to develop in the state. 

Evers also previously signed an executive order creating the Governor’s Task Force on Workforce and Artificial Intelligence to study how AI will transform business, education and other key sectors of the state economy.

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