LA PORTE, Ind. – Microsoft plans to build a $1 billion data center in northwest Indiana designed to bolster the company’s growing cloud computing infrastructure.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, said the 245,000-square-foot data center in La Porte will power the Microsoft Cloud, lending support to the growing need for cloud computing capabilities and artificial intelligence.
The facility at Radius Industrial Park will join the company’s global network of cloud computing infrastructure, which includes more than 60 Azure regions, more than 300 data centers, over 280,000 kilometers of network and over 190 edge sites.
Microsoft plans to hire up to 200 employees by the end of 2032. Positions include critical environment engineers, IT technicians and managers, inventory and asset technicians and managers, security personnel and site managers.
“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. Eric 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.”
Holcomb said Indiana is “excited” to welcome Microsoft.
The timeline for construction and the start of operations is still being worked out, with design, planning and the permitting process all yet to be decided. The company pledged to build with environmental impact in mind. It outlined four sustainability goals:
- Being carbon negative and removing its historical carbon emissions by 2050
- Being water positive and replenishing more water than it uses
- Being zero waste across its direct operations
- Protecting more land than it uses by 2025
La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody described the Microsoft project as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
“What makes this even better is that we get to work with the talented and community-minded team at Microsoft,” Dermody said. “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.”
La Porte approved incentives to support the project, as did NIPSCO. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation committed a 35-year term data center sales tax credit for a minimum $1 billion in eligible capital investment.
“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 IEDC noted that Tuesday’s news marked the fourth major announcement regarding a data center in Indiana, with others coming to Fort Wayne (Google), Jeffersonville (Meta) and New Carlisle (Amazon Web Services).
