By Jordan Novet
Publication Date: 2025-11-25 12:00:00
A sign opposing a zoning change for a Microsoft data center appears in Caledonia, Wisconsin, on Sept. 19, 2025.
Jordan Novet | CNBC
The village of Caledonia, Wisconsin, sandwiched between Chicago and Milwaukee along Lake Michigan, is dotted with corn and soybean fields, single-story homes and traffic signs alerting drivers to horseback riders.
In September, when Microsoft, the world’s third most-valuable company, sought to rezone 244 acres of agricultural land for a data center, 40 of the 49 people who spoke before the village’s planning commission opposed the plan.
They worried about noise. They said air quality, already in violation of federal standards, could worsen. They feared electric bills might inflate and that few jobs would materialize, while Microsoft would continue to reap the rewards of the artificial intelligence boom.
“Why do we have to subsidize a company making billions of dollars a year?” resident Mike Kirchner asked at the meeting.
Nine days later, before Caledonia’s…
