MADISON, WiISCONSIN (AP) – Microsoft has agreed to buy a USD50 million parcel of land in southeastern Wisconsin, United States, meant for Foxconn after the world’s largest electronics manufacturer failed to fulfil grandiose promises to build a massive facility that would employ thousands of workers.
Microsoft plans to build a USD1 billion data centre on the 127-hectare parcel in Mount Pleasant, a village of about 27,000 people in Racine County, about 50 kilometres south of Milwaukee. It’s unclear how many people the centre might employ. Microsoft’s director of global community research and engagement Paul Englis told the Racine County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that such centers typically employ 300 to 400 people.
The village already is home to a Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing facility. The Taiwan-based company is best known for making Apple iPhones. The company announced plans in 2017 to build a USD10 billion facility in Mount Pleasant that would employ 13,000 people.
Wisconsin’s governor at the time, Republican Scott Walker, and then-president Donald Trump praised the decision, with Trump boasting the plant would be the “eighth wonder of the world”.
The state agreed to provide Foxconn with nearly USD3 billion in tax breaks. The company never delivered on its promises and Democratic Governor Tony Evers scaled back the tax breaks to USD80 million contingent on the number of jobs created and investments. The company qualified for just USD8.6 million in tax credits last year after creating 768 eligible jobs and making a USD77.4 million capital investment by the end of 2021.
According to a fact sheet describing the Microsoft project compiled by southeastern Wisconsin economic development groups, the parcel of land is part of a tax-increment financing district that includes the Foxconn campus. Property taxes collected in such districts can be used to subsidise development.
