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Microsoft expands Wisconsin AI data center investment to $7 billion

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Microsoft announced plans to build a second major artificial intelligence data center in Wisconsin, raising its total investment in the state to more than $7 billion. The new $4 billion facility will join a $3.3 billion data center already under construction in Mount Pleasant, Racine County, first unveiled last year.

The initial data center is expected to open in 2026 and employ about 500 people, while the addition of the second will expand staffing to around 800. Microsoft says the combined site will eventually host the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer, linking together hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips.

The development comes on land once earmarked for Foxconn’s highly publicized $10 billion factory, a project dramatically scaled back after initial political fanfare during Donald Trump’s presidency. When President Joe Biden attended Microsoft’s first announcement last year, he highlighted Foxconn’s retreat as a cautionary tale while framing Microsoft’s plan as a sign of renewed investment.

Microsoft said it will pre-pay for electrical infrastructure to avoid burdening local customers with higher power bills and will use Wisconsin’s cold climate for energy-efficient cooling. Annual water consumption will be capped at roughly the level of an average restaurant. To offset its energy use, the company will also build solar power elsewhere in Wisconsin, though Microsoft President Brad Smith noted new fossil fuel generation—specifically liquefied natural gas—will still be part of the mix.

While the 800 permanent jobs fall short of the thousands promised by Foxconn, Smith emphasized the importance of ongoing skilled labor positions, including pipefitters and electricians, needed for both construction and long-term maintenance.

Nvidia invests $900 million to acquire Enfabrica talent and technology

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Nvidia has reportedly spent more than $900 million to bring Enfabrica’s CEO, Rochan Sankar, and other staff into the company, while also securing a license for Enfabrica’s technology, according to CNBC. The deal, a mix of cash and stock, closed last week, and Sankar has already taken up his new role at Nvidia.

Enfabrica, a Silicon Valley chip startup founded by former Broadcom and Alphabet engineers, specializes in solving one of AI’s biggest bottlenecks: interconnecting massive numbers of chips efficiently. Its networking technology allows around 100,000 AI chips to work together as if they were one computer—minimizing costly downtime caused when processors wait for data to move across networks.

The startup had previously raised $260 million in venture capital and in July unveiled a chip-and-software system designed to reduce memory chip costs in large-scale AI data centers. Nvidia’s acquisition echoes a recent trend of tech giants pulling in specialized startups and their leaders to strengthen AI infrastructure. Meta recently took a 49% stake in Scale AI while elevating its CEO Alexandr Wang to a strategic role, and Google hired top staff from AI code generation startup Windsurf after OpenAI attempted to acquire it.

Neither Nvidia nor Enfabrica has publicly commented on the reported deal.

How Nvidia’s $5B Intel stake could bolster Intel’s next-gen chipmaking

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Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) $5 billion investment in Intel (INTC.O) may give the struggling chipmaker crucial momentum for its next-generation manufacturing efforts, even though Nvidia has not committed to using Intel’s factories for its own chips, analysts said.

The deal, announced Thursday, gives Nvidia a roughly 4% stake in Intel and creates a partnership to develop “multiple generations” of joint products. These products will link Intel’s central processors with Nvidia’s AI and graphics chips via NVLink, Nvidia’s high-speed proprietary interconnect.

Analysts say the collaboration could indirectly strengthen Intel’s 14A manufacturing process, set for 2027, which the company has warned may not move forward without sufficient customer demand. By tying its CPUs to Nvidia’s flagship products in ways unmatched by rivals, Intel could secure the production volumes needed to justify its costly investments.

“Any relationship with Nvidia at this point, while not explicitly talking about the foundry services, should be seen as a possible extension of the partnership in the future,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold Associates.

Under the agreement, Intel Foundry will supply CPUs for the joint products and package Nvidia chips for some of them. Engineers from both firms will collaborate to translate Nvidia’s designs into physical chips manufactured by Intel. This is notable given both companies often rely on Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW) for production.

“If these joint products prove popular, it gives me a higher degree of confidence that 14A continues, at which point Intel should have very good returns,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies.

For Nvidia, the deal offers better access to government and enterprise customers that run decades of Intel-compatible software. The main loser could be Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), which competes directly with both companies in CPUs and GPUs. “Having two major competitors combining their efforts is not exactly a positive outcome for AMD,” Gold noted.