Microsoft Fairwater Wisconsin
Part of Microsoft AI WAN. Chip types: B200. Epoch AI estimates ~369 MW.
Key facts
- Operator
- Microsoft
- Owner
- Microsoft
- Tenant
- OpenAI, Microsoft
- Size
- 369 MW
- Location
- Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
- Stage today
Source
read 2026-08-14
What to do next
Next step: Already operating — the leverage now is enforcement: noise and water conditions, tax revenue tracking, and any expansion filing, which reopens the record.
What has happened so far (14 events)
- 2023-03-30vote
Mount Pleasant Village Board unanimously approved three agreements with Microsoft for the purchase and development of approximately 315 acres in Tax Increment District No. 5 for $50,085,000. · source - 2023-04-19vote
Racine County Board of Supervisors voted 18-1 to approve Microsoft's $1 billion data center project on 315 acres in Mount Pleasant; Microsoft required to purchase the land for $50 million by July 31, 2023. · source - 2023-05-30financing
Microsoft completed the $50 million purchase of 315 acres in Mount Pleasant's Tax Increment District 5, land originally acquired by Foxconn in 2017; Foxconn received proceeds as partial reimbursement. · source - 2023-08-27construction
Earthwork and excavation began on the Microsoft data center site in Mount Pleasant, with Walsh Construction (Chicago) leading construction services on the 215-acre campus. · source - 2024-05-08announcement
Microsoft announced a $3.3 billion investment in an AI data center campus in Mount Pleasant; President Biden joined Microsoft President Brad Smith at Gateway Technical College for the announcement, which included 2,300 union construction jobs and a 250 MW solar project. · source - 2024-12-23construction
Microsoft paused construction on portions of its Mount Pleasant data center site, stating it was 'refining our data center design'; the first phase remained on track for 2026 completion. · source - 2025-03-20construction
Microsoft paused construction again on a 900-acre expansion area west of the main campus, citing evaluation of 'scope and recent changes in technology'; the company's $3.3 billion commitment and first-phase 2026 timeline remained intact. · source - 2025-09-18announcement
Microsoft announced an additional $4 billion investment for a second data center in Mount Pleasant, bringing total Wisconsin investment to over $7 billion; the second facility is expected to be completed by 2028. · source - 2025-09-29rezoning
Caledonia Plan Commission voted 5-2 to rezone 245 acres from agricultural to light industrial for Microsoft's third data center (Project Nova) near the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant, after more than 40 residents spoke against it. · source - 2026-01-20announcement
Microsoft proposed a $13.3 billion expansion in Mount Pleasant with two new campuses totaling 15 data centers across more than 1,300 acres, potentially generating over $76 million in annual property tax revenue. · source - 2026-01-26vote
Mount Pleasant Village Board unanimously approved site plans for 15 additional Microsoft data centers on two campuses (9 buildings on 791 acres near Durand Avenue, 6 buildings on 530 acres along International Drive), with anticipated power demand of approximately 2 gigawatts when fully developed. · source - 2026-04-01operational
In April 2026, Microsoft brought equipment online and began startup activities at the Fairwater data center, its first facility in Mount Pleasant. · source - 2026-06-23operational
Microsoft announced the Fairwater data center in Mount Pleasant is fully operational, calling it 'the world's most powerful supercomputer'; the 1.2-million-square-foot facility employs approximately 550 full-time workers and was built by nearly 10,000 construction workers over two years. · source - 2026-07-02lawsuit
Three Sturtevant residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, alleging significant noise pollution from diesel generators and HVAC systems at the Fairwater data center, seeking to represent over 1,000 households within 1.5 miles. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 11 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Wisconsin DNR — Air ManagementThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- Search Wisconsin DNR — Air Management for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Mount Pleasant planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Mount Pleasant property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- MISO (Midwest & Gulf) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Public Service Commission of Wisconsin — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 42.720, -87.840 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Recent news
28 stories tracked since 2026-07-02 across 20 outlets. 21× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 5× Noise from the facility is drawing resident complaints. Most recent: “Mount Pleasant committee revisits data center issues as moratorium advances” (WCIV, 2026-10-05).
- Mount Pleasant committee revisits data center issues as moratorium advances
- Microsoft to ‘redirect’ data center incentive back to Mount Pleasant
- Mount Pleasant leaders to talk data center moratorium
- Mount Pleasant leaders to consider temporary moratorium on data center proposals
- Mount Pleasant not ideal spot for 'thirsty' data centers. Committee advances potential ban anyway.
- VIDEO: Mount Pleasant considers moratorium on data centers
- Mount Pleasant leaders recommend a moratorium on data center development
- Mount Pleasant leaders recommend a moratorium on data center development
- Mount Pleasant considers moratorium on data centers
- Mount Pleasant considers moratorium on data centers
- VIDEO: Mount Pleasant weighs data center moratorium
- VIDEO: Mount Pleasant weighs data center moratorium
+16 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 28 headlines archived.
Around here
- Wisconsin briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Wisconsin
- Project Nova (Microsoft Caledonia) — Caledonia (Racine County), 6 mi Withdrawn
- OpenAI Stargate Wisconsin — Port Washington, 46 mi Under construction
- Meta Beaver Dam — Beaver Dam Under construction
- QTS Dane County — Dane County In review
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Microsoft Fairwater Wisconsin”, aigridwatch.com/projects/microsoft-fairwater-wisconsin, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).