First Foxconn, now Microsoft: Wisconsin town dissed by big tech

Count the residents of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin opposed to their town becoming a tech hub lucky: First, Foxconn abandoned its original $10 billion LCD factory plan in the town, and now Microsoft has reportedly paused construction on portions of its $3.3 billion datacenter campus, which is being built on land initially optioned for Foxconn’s megaproject.

According to Wisconsin Public Radio, Microsoft said the first phase of its multi-datacenter campus on more than 1,000 acres near the Village of Mount Pleasant, just south of Milwaukee, was still going to be completed on time. Phase two, on the other hand, is now under design review as it evaluates how new technologies may impact its datacenter design.

Microsoft confirmed the delay to The Register. “We have paused early construction work for this second phase while we evaluate scope and recent changes in technology and consider how this might impact the design of our facilities,” a spokesperson told us. “We anticipate that this process will last months.”

Redmond added that the review process may include the need to renegotiate some building permits, potentially placing another hurdle in the way of the project. 

Microsoft didn’t specify what redesign plant there is for the facilities, and Mount Pleasant officials weren’t able to shed any more light on what the Windows maker might be planning to change, either. One thing’s for certain, though: they’re keeping an optimistic outlook that the construction hold won’t lead to another Foxconn-level debacle.

“Village officials have no reason to believe this will affect the overall scope or nature of Microsoft’s project,” Village of Mount Pleasant spokesperson Sean Ryan told The Register in an emailed statement. “We appreciate Microsoft being transparent with Village leaders about the construction timeline for its Mount Pleasant datacenters.”

Redmond has already begun construction in all three locations it plans to build datacenters, and Ryan told us the tech giant is years ahead of schedule in fulfilling financial commitments under the development agreement made last year. 

“Microsoft to date has proceeded with construction of its datacenter development in Mount Pleasant at an unbelievably fast pace,” Ryan said. 

One out of three ain’t … uh …
Microsoft’s purchase of land near Mount Pleasant includes areas two and three shown on the map below. Foxconn, Mount Pleasant officials told us, still owns area one, where it has downsized from building an LCD factory dubbed by President-elect Donald Trump in 2018 as the “eighth wonder of the world” to manufacturing data servers on a much smaller site. 

A map of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, showing where Microsoft is building datacenters. Areas 2 and 3 are Microsoft properties, while area 1 is in still owned by Foxconn. – Click to enlarge

Areas 2 and 3, we’re told, were optioned to Foxconn back when the deal was first made in 2017, but Foxconn later relinquished its rights to the site in order for the city to sell the land to Microsoft. 

“The first phase of development, in Area 3B [east of the railroad that cuts through area 3], is on track to be operational in 2025,” Ryan said. “In 2024, Microsoft started construction in Area 3A [west of the railroad], and began earthwork [toward the north end of] Area 2.”

The pause affects construction in areas 2 and 3A.

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Whether the pause will affect employment in the area isn’t clear either. Microsoft did say that goodwill projects in the area, like the “AI Co-Innovation Lab” the tech giant is building with the University of Wisconsin, will continue.

The only clue we have as to why Microsoft might be reconsidering its design for a series of AI datacenters in Mount Pleasant is a company blog post from late last year discussing a new form of closed-loop water cooling that would decrease its water footprint, which has been skyrocketing in recent years thanks to large-scale deployment of AI. 

Microsoft is already ditching evaporative cooling in some datacenters to address concerns over water consumption, and hopes its closed-loop cooling can further cut its footprint.

“The shift to the next generation datacenters is expected to help reduce our water usage effectiveness to near zero for each datacenter employing zero-water evaporation,” Microsoft said in its December 9 post. “New projects in Phoenix, Arizona, and Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, will pilot zero-water evaporated designs in 2026.”

Whether the Wisconsin delays are tied to the closed-loop design, or some other element of datacenter design, is unknown. Microsoft didn’t answer questions to that end.

Redmond did tell us that it still plans to invest $3.3 billion in the project by the end of 2026. It also expects to complete one hyperscale data center in Mount Pleasant as originally planned, which it tells us will be one of its five largest in the world.

“In the meantime, our commitment to and construction of our planned datacenter campus continues,” Microsoft said. ®