President Joe Biden traveled Wednesday to Wisconsin to announce a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build an artificial intelligence data center.
The data center will be built on the property of a planned $10 billion Foxconn facility that Donald Trump touted during his presidency as a major revival of tech manufacturing in the U.S.
But those plans never fully materialized. Foxconn, based in Taiwan, later drastically scaled back plans for the factory, which Trump once called “the eighth wonder of the world,” reducing the number of new jobs from 13,000 to the roughly 1,000 spots that are filled now, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
In remarks Wednesday at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, in Racine County, Biden took aim at Trump multiple times for his “failed promises” about Foxconn, although he didn’t mention his predecessor by name.
Biden said the failed Foxconn project during Trump’s presidency left Wisconsin residents and workers behind, adding that it led to the bulldozing of 100 homes and farms and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. “They dug a hole with those golden shovels, and then they fell into it,” Biden said. “Foxconn turned out to be just that — a con. Go figure,” he added.
Biden touted his administration’s “investing in America” agenda, which includes commitments to rebuild roads and bridges, developments in clean energy and creating $866 billion in private-sector investment nationwide as part of efforts to revitalize American manufacturing.
Biden hailed Microsoft’s investment in the AI data center as a “transformative” investment in infrastructure, especially for the people of Racine, who he said will have the opportunity to get training for new high-paying jobs that don’t require four-year college degrees.
“During the previous administration, my predecessor made promises which he broke more than kept, left a lot of people behind in communities like Racine,” he said. “On my watch, we make promises and we keep promises, and we leave no one behind.”
Microsoft’s investment in the AI data center is expected to employ 2,300 union construction workers and create 2,000 permanent jobs over time, the White House said, adding that nearly 4,000 jobs have been added in Racine, a third of them in manufacturing, and 177,000 in Wisconsin since Biden took office.
Microsoft also plans to partner with Gateway Technical College in Wisconsin to develop a training facility to prepare 1,000 residents for data center jobs and roles in science, technology, engineering and math by 2030, with the aim of employing up to 2,000 people in permanent roles at its Racine facility, the White House said. It will also invest in training 1,000 business leaders to adopt AI in their operations.
The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the economy during Biden’s presidency has been worse compared with his time in office, often pointing to rising inflation and interest rates in recent months.
Biden and administration officials have recently traveled to key battleground states to highlight his economic record, such as legislation investing in infrastructure and clean energy, which Biden has said leads to the creation of more well-paid jobs based in the U.S.
