Summary
Microsofthas completed the purchase of farmland in Wisconsin for $76 million, where it plans to build a data center campus. The tech company has been on quite a spending spree in 2023, asMicrosoft officially acquired Activision Blizzardin the fall for $68.7 billion. Just in the gaming sector alone, Microsoft has been aggressively looking to buy – purchasing Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax, back in 2021.
Foxconn looked to purchase the same land in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, but the owners decided to hold out for a better deal – originally being offered about a third of what they eventually accepted from Microsoft. Foxconn, which manufactures electronic devices from smartphones to gaming consoles, announced it would be building its first US factory in Wisconsin back in 2017 and employing 13,000 workers. Since then, however, these plans have been significantly scaled back. The tech manufacturer came with some serious baggage asFoxconn admitted to using child laborjust over a decade ago, but the state was still hopeful about the 13,000 jobs that now seem too good to be true.
More than six years after Foxconn promised to build its massive factory in Wisconsin, Microsoft is purchasing all sorts of land throughout Mount Pleasant.Milwaukee Business Journalreports the company purchased a pumpkin farm, originally eyed by Foxconn, for $76 million to build a new data center campus. This is in addition to the 641 acres of land Microsoft has already purchased, all together totaling $99.7 million.
On paper, the deal also looks promising for the state of Wisconsin asMicrosoftlooks to invest back in the local community through restoration efforts. Still, the 200 employees Microsoft intends to initially hire, even along with the 460 the company hopes to add over time, pale in comparison to the 13,000 jobs the Foxconn plant initially promised.
As part of the data center, Microsoft thinks Wisconsin will be a good location to grow its cloud services. The cloud has become a tech buzzword in recent years, and it’s no different in the gaming industry.Microsoft has sparked a race for cloud gaming dominancethanks to the company’s various advancements with Xbox Cloud Gaming.
