President Joe Biden will travel to Racine, Wisconsin, on Wednesday to announce a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build a new artificial intelligence data center.
The data center will be built on same property of a planned $10 billion Foxconn facility that former President Donald Trump had touted during his presidency as a major revival of tech manufacturing in the U.S.
But those plans never fully materialized. The Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer later drastically scaled back plans for the factory that 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.
Microsoft’s investment in the artificial intelligence 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, with one third of those 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 for 1,000 residents to prepare them for datacenter and STEM roles by 2030, with the aim of employing up to 2,000 people in permanent roles at its Racine facility, the White House said. The tech giant will also invest in training 1,000 business leaders to adopt AI in their operations.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the economy during Biden’s presidency has been worse compared to 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 the president has said leads to the creation of more well-paid jobs based in the U.S.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
