Microsoft has announced the building of a massive datacenter in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, a place with a history of broken promises from other technological companies. Microsoft, run by Satya Nadella, confirms this will be the largest and most powerful datacenter in the world. So, let’s find out more about this project.
Microsoft’s huge project
Satya Nadella confirmed in a post on X that Microsoft’s datacenter in Fairwater, Mount Pleasant, will be ten times faster than the largest datacenter in the world. This new one will have hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GB200 chips and a fiber network long enough to circle the Earth 4.5 times, about 180,000 km.
This project will be a technological push, but also an economic one for the region. According to the company’s plans, about 3,000 people will take part in the new construction and it will be necessary around 800 permanent employees to operate and maintain the site once it’s complete.
A place with a complex past
Mount Pleasant has experienced technological disappointments before. For example, in 2017, the Taiwanese company Foxconn promised to install a LCD screens production plant in the same place. The project was announced as the ‘’eighth wonder of the world’’, and the state provided $3 billion in subsidies to attract the project.
Foxconn promised to create 30,000 jobs, then it reduced the number to 13,000 and, finally, it only created 281 jobs… The company left the project leaving Wisconsin with an empty industrial land and a feeling of frustration.
Now, Microsoft seeks to change that story with a real project that’s going on: an investment of $3.3 billion in a first datacenter along with a second complex worth $4 billion.
Cooling technology and sustainability
One of the main challenges of large datacenters is the consumption of water and energy. To calm down the local community, Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, confirmed that the new complex is designed to be highly efficient.
More than 90% of the space will be cooled by a closed-loop water system, dramatically reducing consumption. According to the company, the use of water will be similar to the one of an average restaurant in a year.
The datacenter will also have the second largest cooling system in the planet, which uses 20-foot fans to circulate and cool the water before sending it back through the system. What’s more, Microsoft is building a 250MW solar plant to guarantee that every kilowatt hour consumed from fossil fuels is matched by renewable energy.
Local and environmental reactions
Even though the project has been positively welcomed due to the job opportunities and infrastructures, not everybody agrees with this. Organizations like Clean Wisconsin warn that the energy consumption of this datacenter, along with another nearby complex in Port Washington, will consume enough energy to power 4.33 million homes. That figure is greater than the 2.8 million households in the state.
Despite criticism, Microsoft insists that its sustainability strategy will minimize environmental impact and that the investment is a unique opportunity for Wisconsin to regain technological relevance.
Putting its faith in the future
For Brad Smith, this project has a personal value because he spent his childhood in Mount Pleasant and providing this datacenter to his community means combining nostalgia with innovation.
With this megacomplex, Microsoft wants to be the leader in artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Also, the company wants to prove how a technological investment can reactivate a region and bring lasting benefits after years of disappointment. We are all surrounded by technology, but do you think this project is a great idea? I guess we will have to wait and see.