UPDATE: Gov. Eric Holcomb announces $1 billion Microsoft Data Center plans for La Porte
LA PORTE, Ind. -- Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has announced Microsoft will invest $1 billion for a data center in La Porte.
The official announcement states this is part of $14.8 billion committed by Fortune 500 businesses to Indiana's technology infrastructure in 2024, which aims to accelerate global cloud and artificial intelligence (A.I.) innovation.
Gov. Holcomb's announcement goes on to say the 245,000 square foot facility will create up to 200 jobs by the end of 2032.
“Indiana is committed to being a central hub in the global economy of the future, and this latest announcement ensures Hoosier communities and talent will be key to widespread advancements in cloud and artificial intelligence technology,” said Gov. Holcomb. “As a state, we’ve built a pro-growth business climate and implemented a future-focused framework to attract major investments in high-tech, high-growth sectors. We’re excited to welcome Microsoft’s new data center to Indiana and look forward to the incredible value add impact this will have on our statewide data driven ecosystem, new career opportunities, specifically the greater northwest Indiana community.”
The center will help power the Microsoft Cloud and support digital transformation spurred by the widespread adoption of cloud computing and A.I., according to the announcement.
The planned data center is said to take up 489 acres at the Radius Industrial Park in La Port and will join the company’s worldwide network of cloud computing infrastructure of over 60 Azure regions and over 300 data centers.
“Microsoft is excited to expand our datacenter infrastructure into Indiana, with our first campus to be built in La Porte,” said Bowen Wallace, Microsoft CVP Datacenters, Americas Region. “We appreciate the collaboration with the state, city, and the La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership that has made this opportunity possible. We look forward to an enduring and beneficial relationship with Indiana and the City of La Porte as we build and scale our data center infrastructure to support our customer and partners.”
The announcement adds La Porte and NIPSCO are both offering additional incentives to support the project.
“Projects like this happen once in a lifetime, and their effects are felt forever,” said La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody. “What makes this even better is that we get to work with the talented and community-minded team at Microsoft. From the very beginning of this project, they have been committed and attentive to the needs of our community. We are incredibly excited to welcome them here and look forward to a strong collaboration long into the future.”
NIPSCO President and Chief Operating Officer Vince Parisi said, “Providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to the communities we serve is NIPSCO’s mission, and we have been working closely with Microsoft on plans to fulfill the energy needs for the new data center in the city of La Porte."
ABC57 also confirmed Tuesday that the St. Joe Farms property that was re-zoned for a new "tech center" in May, was purchased by the Microsoft Corporation as well.
The St. Joe Farms property cost $77.5 million and is being developed on 990 acres of land off of Cleveland Road in Granger.