Licking County, Ohio, close to Columbus, was the site Microsoft chose to build a billion-dollar networks of data centers. Those plans will not move forward, the company now reports. The two unmentioned elephants in the room (or perhaps in the charming covered bridge) would be the tariffs, obviously, but also cooling interest in AI.
"After careful consideration, we will not be moving forward at this time with our plans to build data centers at the Licking County sites," the company announced in a message to local news media. "We will continue to evaluate these sites in line with our investment strategy. We sincerely appreciate the leadership and partnership of Ohio government officials and the support of Licking County residents. We are taking the appropriate steps to ensure the land at two of our sites can be used for farming and are following through with our development agreements to fund roadway and utility upgrades. We will continue to invest in and collaborate with local organizations to support digital skills development, restoration efforts, and to strengthen the communities in Licking County for future generations."
Bolding mine.
Just yesterday, President Trump made a point of claiming working class people don't want to work in tech: "[Hillary] was going to put them in a high-tech industry where you make little cell phones and things, I don't know, do you think you'd be good at that?"
Intel is still planning to build a chip plant there; sunk costs might oblige it to proceed, even if it isn't returning calls right now.
