Mount Pleasant Wisconsin
Village in Racine County, Wisconsin; site of Microsoft's $3.3 billion data centre campus whose phase 1 water use figure was revealed only via Milwaukee Riverkeeper litigation.
Last refreshed: 26 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Should Great Lakes water be used to cool Microsoft's AI training infrastructure?
Timeline for Mount Pleasant Wisconsin
Microsoft Mount Pleasant: 8M gallons via lawsuit
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash- How much water does Microsoft's Wisconsin data centre use?
- Microsoft's Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin campus can draw up to 8 million gallons per day from the Racine County municipal water system. This figure was disclosed after Milwaukee Riverkeeper's litigation forced the release of the non-disclosure agreement.Source: Lowdown data-centres briefing
- Where is Microsoft building in Wisconsin?
- Microsoft is building a $3.3 billion data centre campus in Mount Pleasant, a village in Racine County, southeastern Wisconsin. The site was chosen partly for access to Great Lakes water for cooling.Source: Lowdown data-centres briefing
Background
Mount Pleasant is a village in Racine County, southeastern Wisconsin, chosen by Microsoft for a $3.3 billion data centre campus. The site became nationally prominent when Milwaukee Riverkeeper's litigation forced the disclosure of the water use agreement: Microsoft committed to drawing up to 8 million gallons per day from the Racine County municipal water system for cooling. The volume — equivalent to serving a small city — became a reference figure in debates about data centre water consumption from Great Lakes region water.
Microsoft had sought to keep the water agreement confidential under a non-disclosure arrangement with Racine County. Following the forced disclosure, Microsoft announced a broader basin-level water replenishment commitment in January 2026, pledging to restore more water to the watershed than it consumes. The Mount Pleasant campus is part of Microsoft's AI infrastructure buildout, which has included large data centre expansions in multiple US states. The site's location in Wisconsin reflects deliberate selection of water-rich Great Lakes states for cooling-intensive AI operations.