Plans to build data centers, home to artificial intelligence, have popped up in multiple locations around Wisconsin. These data centers often become quite costly and many companies and corporations have started fiscally supporting these efforts.
With AI becoming increasingly popular online, tech companies are trying to capitalize on the boom. AI data centers contribute to the economy by a fair amount, as these companies have heavily invested in the future of AI. However, investing means expanding, and they have set their sights on two Wisconsin cities: Port Washington and Mount Pleasant.
Port Washington is a port city situated 30 minutes north of Milwaukee. Mayor Ted Neitzke has worked with Vantage Data Centers to plan out the 2000-acre data center, with plans to use the water from Lake Michigan to cool it. Neitzke has received major pushback from the community. At a public meeting held on Oct. 7, many residents spoke out against the construction of the data center. “There is no action tonight that will start or stop this project,” was what the citizens heard from Neitzke. The land required was already purchased by Vantage, and Neitzke had expected Port Washington to increase in value by $120 million, much to the dismay of many residents.
Mount Pleasant is almost directly opposite Port Washington, south of Milwaukee. The data center planned here is backed by Microsoft, a tech giant worth almost $4 trillion. Microsoft has bought over 1300 acres of land in Mount Pleasant, and they plan to invest over a billion dollars to build their AI data center.
Microsoft has also announced several other plans to invest in the state of Wisconsin, putting out a total of $4.5 million dollars to restore and advance many communities’ developments. Of the total amount, $4.2 million will be put into restoring Lamparek Creek, and $100,000 will be put into restoring water throughout Racine County. The last $200,000 of the total will be put into furthering the STEM education programs in Racine County. Microsoft ends a post on their own website with: “We’re not just investing in an AI data center; we are investing in a community.”
Online, both projects have received digital pushback from both local and foreign voices. One of the most notable voices was comedian Charlie Berens. Berens has been very opposed to the plans for Port Washington, going so far as to interview with CBS.
One of his biggest criticisms of the project was about Neitzke himself. Berens stated: “The point of an elected official is to represent the will of the people, but if you can’t tell the people what’s in the deal, how can you accurately reflect the will of the people?” When presented with this, Neitzke simply replied: “We did listen. The people were heard.”
Aside from the numerous voices against the projects, many online articles have been published that detail the impact of these data centers. Clean Wisconsin, an organization advocating to fight climate change and pollution in Wisconsin communities, posted numbers on their website explaining the impact of these projects, with one of the biggest impacts being power. Powering both data centers alone takes 3.9 gigawatts of energy, which is more than every single home in the state combined.
Vantage has also posted lots of information on their website about the data center they are building. Vantage plans to use zero-emission energy to power the data center and to keep the energy production clean. They also plan to have a closed-loop water system to keep the water used to cool the data center clean and to avoid wasteful water usage.
Microsoft also has positive impacts planned for the community of Racine County, as detailed above. In addition to the restoration projects, Microsoft plans to create an academy in Racine County and a lab on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Microsoft plans to have these two centers to help train students working with AI and further its development.
The two data centers will not be finished for quite some time, with Microsoft planning to be finished by 2026 and Vantage by 2028, with both centers being inactive yet for the near future.