Microsoft pauses construction on parts of Mount Pleasant site again

Once again, Microsoft has paused work on a 900-acre portion of its Mount Pleasant data center campus.

Construction remains “fully on track” on the campus’s first phase, which is planned for 2026, according to a Microsoft spokesperson.

But on a swath of land slated for future phases of the project, preliminary work was paused in January — then restarted — and now paused again.

A Microsoft spokesperson did not comment on the reason for the pause.

“The most important thing for people in Wisconsin to know is that we’re fully on track with construction on our datacenter in Mt. Pleasant, it’s still expected to go online in 2026, and our $3.3 billion commitment remains intact,” the spokesperson said by email. “We have expansion sites in Mount Pleasant where we intend to build additional infrastructure, and we’ve already done preliminary work for those future builds.”

When the pause on the 900-acre expansion site was initially announced in January, the company said it was reevaluating plans.

“We have paused early construction work for this second phase while we evaluate scope and recent changes in technology and consider how this might impact the design of our facilities,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email at that time.

The project’s ongoing first phase is near the intersection of 90th Street and State Highway 195 in Mount Pleasant. The additional 900 acres are just west of that site, as well as to the northwest along Durand Avenue.

Pause is within terms agreed with village, official says

Microsoft is keeping its end of the bargain with the Village of Mount Pleasant, according to village Communications Director Sean Ryan.

The project’s first phase will take care of the $3.3 billion Microsoft promised to invest in the campus before the end of 2026, he said.

He said property value created by that phase “is expected to surpass the amount Microsoft committed to in its agreement with the Village.”

Taxes levied on that property value will fully compensate the village and Racine County for infrastructure investments they made for the project, he said.

In a 2023 agreement with the village and Racine County, Microsoft gave itself until July 2030 to start work on a second phase of the project.

Microsoft may be pulling back from data centers, report says

Microsoft may be slowing down on its data center expansion nationally, according to a February report by investment bank TD Cowen.

The report said that Microsoft has cancelled at least two leases it had with third-party data center operators.

It also said the company has walked away from several large data center projects in early-stage negotiations.

Microsoft could be “in an oversupply position” of data centers compared to its new projections of future demand, the report said.