President Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday to announce the creation of an artificial intelligence data center, highlighting one of his administration's biggest economic achievements in a crucial battleground state, and signaling a significant failure by his immediate predecessor. and 2024 challenger.
At a technical school in Racine, Biden will announce that Microsoft will invest $3.3 billion to build the center, which the tech giant estimates will create 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs, according to the White House. The project is part of Mr. Biden's project. Agenda “Investing in the United States”which has focused on attracting billions of private sector dollars into manufacturing and industries such as clean energy and artificial intelligence.
On his fourth trip to Wisconsin this year, Biden will continue an aggressive campaign to draw a contrast between himself and former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, who is in the fourth week of his criminal trial over payments. to a pornographic movie star. While in Wisconsin, Biden will also attend a campaign event, where he will speak to Black voters about what is at stake in the election.
In a fact sheet released by the White House, the administration said Biden's visit to Racine would show “a community at the center of his commitment to investing in places that have historically been overlooked or failed by policies.” of the last administration.”
Microsoft's data center will be built on the land where Trump, as president, announced in 2017 that Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics maker, would build a $10 billion factory to make LCD panels. The Foxconn factory was supposed to be one of Trump's major domestic manufacturing victories: the first major factory run by the electronics supplier in Wisconsin, with the promise of 13,000 jobs.
Instead, the ill-fated project never materialized as promised, even after receiving millions in subsidies and demolishing homes and farms to build the factory. The company abandoned its plans and produced only a small fraction of the promised jobs, dealing a blow to Trump's promise to revitalize American manufacturing as well as Racine, which lost about 1,000 manufacturing jobs during his four years in office. . Information released by the White House ahead of Biden's visit said the new data center would add to the more than 4,000 jobs created in Racine since the president took office.
Trump took credit for negotiating the Foxconn project, which he promised would be the “eighth wonder of the world.” When Trump and then-Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou announced the project at the White House in 2017, Trump boasted about how instrumental it was in getting the electronics supplier to Apple and other tech giants to invest in Racine.
“I would look at Terry and say, 'You've got to give us one of these huge places,'” Trump said. “If I wasn't elected, he definitely wouldn't spend $10 billion.”
Microsoft promises that in addition to its data center, it will invest in workforce development in Racine and throughout Wisconsin, the White House said.
The company plans to work with Gateway Technical College to develop a “Data Center Academy” that will train 1,000 workers across the state for data center and science and technology roles by 2030, according to the White House. The company also said it would expand its “Girls in STEM” program to two more middle schools.
“Wisconsin has a rich and storied legacy of innovation and ingenuity in manufacturing,” Brad Smith, vice president and president of Microsoft, said in a statement. “We will use our resources, scale and expertise to augment these strengths with the world's most advanced ai and the skills training to put it to use.”
