.jpg) Groundbreaking with Governor Walker, President Trump, Foxconn CEO Gou and House Speaker Paul Ryan | |
| Location | Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°40′35″N 87°56′20″W / 42.67639°N 87.93889°W |
| Groundbreaking | June 28, 2018 |
| Companies | |
| Developer | Foxconn |
| Planner | Hammes Company |
| Proposed | April 2017 |
The Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park was developed when Foxconn committed to investing $10 billion in a display panel manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin per an agreement with the state of Wisconsin. The initial announcement claimed that the site would employ up to 13,000 workers and that the company would receive $3 billion in subsidies. The factory was to start production by the end of 2020. State and local governments made substantial infrastructure improvements.
The plant was heavily touted by Governor Scott Walker and Republicans in Wisconsin. President Donald Trump praised the plant at the groundbreaking ceremony. Numerous economists expressed skepticism that the benefits to Wisconsin would exceed the costs of the deal for Wisconsin's taxpayers. The amount would have been by far the largest tax incentive deal ever given to a foreign firm in U.S. history. Environmentalists criticized the deal for exempting the factory from Wisconsin's environmental rules including being granted extensive water rights. Clearing the site involved the acquisition and demolition of houses through eminent domain.
Each year up till 2020, the state denied the project's tax subsidies since the project goals were not being met. Foxconn finally confirmed an alternative development plan with data center infrastructure and high-performance computing capabilities in November 2020. By January 2021, three structures have been built, a 120,000-square-foot storage facility (11,000 m2), a 1 million-square-foot building (93,000 m2) (intended for manufacturing but will be used for storage), and a globe-shaped structure which will house a network operations center.[1] In March 2021, they began making servers and other 5G networking gear for a handful of clients. Under a new agreement announced in April 2021, Foxconn will reduce its planned investment to $672 million with 1,454 new jobs. Tax credits available to the project were reduced to $8 million. In April 2023, Microsoft purchased a site with the project to build a data center.