Racine business owner reacts to Presidential visit, multibillion dollar Microsoft investment

STURTEVANT, Wis. — President Biden’s fourth visit to Wisconsin this year centered around his administration’s Investing in America agenda and the $3.3 billion Microsoft is pouring into a new data center in Mount Pleasant.

The room Wednesday was filled with union members, Gateway Technical College employees, and Racine County residents to listen to President Biden tout the tech giant’s multi-billion dollar investment in the county.

The new tech hub, which has already broken ground, is said to bring over 2,000 full-time jobs once in operation, and according to Microsoft CEO Brad Smith, coach thousands more.

“We will train more than 100,000 people in Wisconsin by the end of the decade so they have the AI skills to fill the jobs of tomorrow,” Smith said.

The data center will sit on the same site where just six years ago Foxconn Corporation said they’d be investing $10 billion.

It was a plan that never came to fruition.

Small business owners in the audience like Latoya Thurmond say re-investing in that site brings back excitement to the community.

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“I think that it’s hope restored,” said Thurman. “It’s good to see the restoration, the energy, and people gaining and regaining hope again.”

Thurmond has been running an early education business called LaPre Academy for almost two decades and says seeing a Fortune 500 company fund the future of her hometown is inspiring.

“To be in the crowd and see all of the energy that’s going forth in the big business, while being a small business owner, it was really really empowering.”

Microsoft says construction for the data center will be completed in two years.

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