Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bangalore, India on February 25, 2020. According to a statement from Telefonica, Microsoft plans to expand its strategic partnership with Telefonica SA by opening a new data center region in Spain.
Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
microsoft has been revealed to be the mysterious company behind a future data center in a part of Michigan where local residents oppose such development.
In a letter issued Wednesday by Lowell Charter Township, Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure team was named as the team considering the 237-acre site off Interstate 96. The township has a population of approximately 6,500 people and is located 32 miles southeast of Grand Rapids.
The letter comes after weeks of speculation about who is working with developer Franklin Partners on the controversial project. Illinois-based Franklin previously announced it would work with a U.S.-based state-owned company to build a data center there.
In December, local residents flooded a Planning Commission meeting where a public hearing on the proposed rezoning was on the agenda, leading to the postponement of the event. News outlet MLive reported that a Grand Rapids business owner showed up wearing a Mr. Peanut costume and holding a sign that read “This is Nuts.”
Some people in the area say the town is moving too quickly to rezone the land, given the lack of clarity around issues such as energy requirements to operate the facility. Days after the canceled meeting, local officials said they were temporarily putting the project’s progress on hold.
“We are introducing ourselves now because we recognize the community wants more information about this proposal. We believe it is important to be transparent about our intentions going forward,” Microsoft said in a letter Wednesday. “We asked the seller to pause the rezoning process so we could spend time with the community earlier this year and share more about potential long-term plans before proceeding.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts in October that Microsoft plans to nearly double the size of its data center portfolio over the next two years. We are part of a group of industry heavyweights. Amazon, google, Meta, oracleOpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI accelerate data center spin-up Nvidia’s Graphics processing units and other infrastructure required to run powerful artificial intelligence models and workloads.
Together, the tech giants spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year in capital spending, raising concerns that they are fueling a new industry bubble.
Utility companies in some U.S. markets have said they won’t be able to provide the energy needed for these planned data centers, making site selection even more difficult. Residents who live near the planned construction site are protesting, citing a variety of concerns.
Water use is one of the key issues. The Michigan township said it has an agreement with the neighboring city of Lowell that provides a path to “increase power plant capacity at no additional cost to ratepayers.” Consumers Energy, the utility company that serves millions of Michiganders, said the data center will not lead to higher electricity bills.
The site of the town’s Covenant Business Park is zoned for industrial planning development and is vacant, in part due to a lack of water and sewer service. For the project to move forward, the town board must approve a zoning change to light industrial.
According to the town, the development is expected to involve an investment of $500 million to $1 billion over three to five years.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to meet again on January 12th.
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