U.S President Joe Biden will announce on Wednesday a new $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to construct a new artificial intelligence datacenter in Racine, Wisconsin, in an effort to draw attention to his efforts to create jobs and the state’s economic successes.
The datacenter will generate 2,000 permanent employment and 2,300 union construction jobs, according to the White House.
Additionally, Microsoft has pledged to collaborate with the state-run Gateway Technical College to provide 1,000 workers with training for STEM and datacenter jobs, as well as 1,000 business executives with training to implement AI in their operations.
The White House statement highlights the datacenter project as a part of Biden’s “Investing in America” push to mobilize private sector investments to create manufacturing jobs in the semiconductors, clean energy and AI industries.
The AI datacenter is being built “on the same land” where former President Donald Trump unveiled a $10 billion Foxconn factory that never came to be, the White House’s fact sheet about the project mentions several times.
Trump had referred to the factory as “the eighth wonder of the world” when he announced it in 2017 and promised it would create 13,000 jobs.
Biden is also scheduled to attend a campaign event later on Wednesday in Racine where he will address Black voters and “discuss the stakes of this election and the important progress made under his leadership for the Black community,” according to his campaign.
