Associated media – Associated media
The Microsoft data center will be built on grounds where Mr. Trump, as president, announced in 2017 that Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, would build a $10 billion factory for making LCD panels. The Foxconn factory was supposed to be one of Mr. Trump’s marquee domestic manufacturing victories: the first major factory run by the electronics supplier in Wisconsin, with a promised 13,000 jobs.
Instead, the ill-fated project never materialized as promised, even after receiving millions in subsidies and bulldozing homes and farms to build the factory. The company abandoned its plans and produced only a small fraction of the promised jobs, dealing a major blow to Mr. Trump’s pledge to revitalize American manufacturing as well as to Racine, which lost about 1,000 manufacturing jobs during his four years in office. The information issued by the White House ahead of Mr. Biden’s visit said the new data center would add to the more than 4,000 jobs created in Racine since the president took office.
Mr. Trump took credit for negotiating the Foxconn project, which he promised would be the “eighth wonder of the world.” When Mr. Trump and Foxconn’s chairman at the time, Terry Gou, announced the project at the White House in 2017, Mr. Trump boasted how integral he was to getting the electronics supplier for Apple and other tech giants to invest in Racine.
“I’d see Terry and say, ‘You’ve got to give us one of these massive places,’” Mr. Trump said. “If I didn’t get elected, he definitely wouldn’t be spending $10 billion.”
Microsoft is promising that in addition to its data center, it will invest in work force development in Racine and all of Wisconsin, the White House said.
Connected media – Related media