In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft has decided to temporarily pause the construction of a $3.3 billion data center in Mount Pleasant. Wisconsin Public Radio reports the tech giant is still on track to complete the project’s first phase by 2026. However, it’s unclear when phase two of the project will commence because it’s under design review to establish how new technologies will affect the company’s data center design.
While speaking to The Register, a Microsoft spokesman indicated:
“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. We anticipate that this process will last months.”
According to The Information, the $3.3 billion data center was supposed to be used by OpenAI to facilitate its sophisticated AI advances and foster the development of a cutting-edge supercomputer.
This story came out before China’s DeepSeek-R1 was released on 1/20/25 but Microsoft had to have seen the writing on the wall as DeepSeek had been progressing rapidly for months. It is in China’s interests that USA not succeed in having sole control of the world’s best AI. So China made DeepSeek available to all for free. That is a military move as well as an economic one. It is a KOBK move in that China has ‘killed’, at least for now, US total superiority in AI, while forcing everyone to change direction by supplying everyone with new opportunities for AI development. ABN
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