I am so excited about what the future holds with this project, and I am proud to be here
and thank you for being here today.
My name is Corey Mason and I have the honor of serving as the mayor of the city of Racine.
There are amazing things that we are going to hear about today in terms of the announcements
that are going on.
I am so excited about what the future holds with this project and the visit that we have
from President Biden.
But I just want to remind people that President Biden has been there for this community from
day one.
People might absolutely.
People might remember at the start of his presidency we were coming out of the pandemic,
cities were trying to figure out how to just keep funding going, the economy was in a
rough place, and his leadership brought forth something called the American Rescue Plan
Act.
He sent money directly back to cities so that we could pay for police and fire and public
health nurses to make sure we could get through the worst of the pandemic.
And he did that through his leadership.
So you want to know who invested in Racine?
President Joe Biden.
Coming out of the pandemic we saw a spike in gun violence in this country, and this president
set up a gun violence prevention office out of the White House, and now we have grants
coming back to the city.
So we're not just fighting crime, we're fighting the causes of crime.
Gun violence is down 61% and we've not had a homicide yet this year.
Who is keeping Racine safe?
President Joe Biden.
One of the things I love about this president is he says you need to grow the middle class
from the bottom up and the middle out.
And so we took those Rescue Plan dollars and we started our Grow Racine program, which
invests in things to move people in the middle class.
So now with Gateway and the YWCA we have the largest adult high school program in the state
of Wisconsin.
So people like Sherry Robinson has graduated as an adult through high school with 200 other
people with the scholarships we gave with the American Rescue Plan.
Who's training our workforce?
President Joe Biden.
We know we need to get young people to want to go into police and fire.
So we started police and fire academies with ARPA dollars.
People like Rosie Gomez are now getting their degree in fire safety because of the youth
employment program.
Who's training up the next generation of public safety workers?
President Joe Biden.
We're going to see a lot of work in the construction trades coming forward.
We set up a pre-apprenticeship program to get people into the trades.
So the opportunities that come from this building are broadly shared in this community.
Who's invested in training in the next generation of the building trades?
President Joe Biden.
We know that housing is an issue we've set up a financial empowerment center.
People like Lorraine Brown are now first-time homeowners because of the counseling she's
received there.
And we're going to use ARPA dollars to build 50 houses in this community of mercy that
needs the most.
Who's rebuilding our city?
President Joe Biden.
The president told us to use those rescue plan dollars to make sure that we're setting
people to come out of that economic challenge.
We're going to build a health clinic and community center with ARPA dollars.
And because of the inflation reduction act, it's going to be the first net zero building
in our community.
Who's making sure that we're healthy in this community?
President Joe Biden.
We have lead pipes in this community going through our water system and into our houses.
It's a real public health crisis, especially for children.
We have 12,000 houses that need those pipes removed.
Who's getting us the funding so that we can do that?
Who's getting the lead out of this community?
President Joe Biden.
We have the most electrified bus fleet in the state of Wisconsin.
Students can take those buses to get to this campus and around this community.
And we're getting four more electric buses because of the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Who's making receipts sustainable?
President Joe Biden.
You may have driven on at least six bipartisan infrastructure law road projects that are rebuilding
our infrastructure.
Who's doing that for a scene?
President Joe Biden.
We are blessed to live on this beautiful Lake Michigan on the shores here in Wisconsin.
And we need to protect those resources.
Because of the governor's freshwater challenge, who's going to make sure that we protect the
Great Lakes?
President Joe Biden.
Look, I could go on all day about the great things that this president has done to positively
impact this community beyond what you're going to hear about today.
We are at a place where we are seeing a generationally low unemployment rate, got more work to do
to build the middle class.
But make no mistake, no president has done more to reinvest and rebuild the middle class
in this town and help countless communities like ours across the country than who?
President Joe Biden.
So it takes amazing partnerships to do all this work at the local federal level.
But you also need a great state partner, too.
And we are so lucky and privileged to have a great governor.
It is my honor to introduce the great governor of the state, Governor Tony Evers.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Hello, Wisconsin.
It's a pleasure to be here today to welcome President Biden back to Wisconsin once again
and celebrate several exciting steps forward in our strong partnership with Microsoft.
I want to start by extending a big thank you to all who have contributed to helping
bring the incredible multi-billion, that's billion with a B effort with Microsoft to
Wisconsin.
I especially want to thank all the local folks and you know who you are and regional leaders
and economic development partners who have always played a critical role in our efforts
here in Southeast Wisconsin.
Together these last few years, we've worked hard to make sure our state is best positioned
to take upon a partnership of this magnitude and it is big.
As part of the budget I signed last year, I was proud to approve a measure to put our
state in a more competitive position for data center investments.
Additionally, last fall, Wisconsin was designated as a regional tech hub, which was an important
catalyst to implement this partnership in Wisconsin.
Finally, our agency partners at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, including
CEO, Missy Hughes, have worked closely with Microsoft to help the company expand its operations
in Wisconsin.
A positive relationship we are going to continue in the months and the years ahead.
The efforts we are here to celebrate today build upon a long-standing relationship between
Microsoft and Wisconsin and most notably in the Green Bay area.
In Green Bay, Microsoft Tech Spark and its signature project that is Title Town Tech
are accelerating economic growth by supporting skills development by businesses and entrepreneurs
and fostering innovation through venture capital investment.
And looking to the future, we could not be more exciting that Microsoft chose Wisconsin
for its new and most important AI co-innovation lab.
Located at UW-Walk's Connected Systems Institute, the Wisconsin AI co-innovation lab will focus
on bringing AI skills and capability to manufacturers to strengthen this vital sector
of our economy.
Wisconsin has a long, proud history and tradition of being a manufacturing powerhouse.
And you know what's happening today?
I'll just read to you this Wisconsin headline from a few weeks ago.
And this is a quote, manufacturing has begun returning home.
Folks, you're damn right, that's what we're doing right here in Wisconsin.
More and more companies every day are recognizing that if you want something made right, you're
going to make it in Wisconsin because here at the Badger State, our strength in this
industry is built around the issue of innovation and work ethic of our people.
You can't beat Wisconsin workers, folks.
And we need to build upon that momentum so that Wisconsin workers and manufacturers cannot
own and compete but stay ahead in the 21st century economy.
Central to these exciting partnerships, though, the importance of AI and supporting our workers
and our manufacturing future.
Last year, through an executive order, I signed, we created a task force and a workforce and
an artificial intelligence to help us embrace a future where every Wisconsinite reaps the
benefits of an efficient growing economy in adopting this new technology.
And we're thrilled to have Microsoft be part of advancing this important work.
Whether it's creating local jobs or promoting economic development in this booming part
of the state, the potential of a positive partnership like this between Microsoft and
Wisconsin are limitless.
And together with the strong supporter of President Biden and so many others, we are
working to create a better, stronger, and more equitable future for everybody.
So with that, thank you once again for being here and let's get to work, folks.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I first want to say on behalf of all of my colleagues from Microsoft here today, how pleased and honored we are to be here to announce that between now and the end of 2026, we will invest and spend $3.3 billion.
Thank you.
Working with all of you, we are going to build something special with the help of some very special people. More than 2,000 people who have union jobs, the electricians, the plumbers.
Yes.
And we are going to be building among the world's most advanced AI and cloud data centers that you will see anywhere. And it's not just the jobs that we're creating here.
We are creating manufacturing jobs across the state of Wisconsin as we get steel from near was as we get chillers from lacrosse as we get generators from near Madison. This is literally creating jobs across the state of Wisconsin.
As some of you know, I love this project for one very particular reason, among others. From the age of 9 to 14, I literally live just 3 miles from here.
Our family dog came from a farm that's now part of the land on which we are building this data center.
But I want you to know, this isn't just about building a building and it's not just about the manufacturing jobs of today.
More than anything, this project is about using the power of AI to fuel the future of manufacturing companies and jobs and skills across the state of Wisconsin and around the country.
That is what we are building together.
On the one hand, it actually helps to have a big company like Microsoft that can build a strong foundation that can support every small business and non-profit everywhere.
But more than that, as you all know, it takes a community.
And one thing that I've always felt is so important about the work we are doing here is to under-promise, over-deliver and work with the community.
That's what I learned growing up here. It's the way to do business here.
That is what we're doing with all of you.
And the partnerships that have come together are truly, in my view, inspiring.
It's our work with Gateway Technical College to create a data center economy that will train more than 1,000 people to fill the operational jobs that this new facility will require.
It's the partnership with the United Way of Racine County and with the state of Wisconsin and with other partners, we will train more than 100,000 people in Wisconsin by the end of the decade.
So they have the AI skills to fill the jobs of tomorrow.
And one of the most exciting things that I think we're launching today is in a new initiative, the first of its kind of the United States, a manufacturing-focused AI co-innovation lab.
It will be at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at the Connected Systems Institute.
We literally will have the opportunity to help hundreds of companies, hundreds of manufacturing companies come in so they can design new AI-based systems that will ensure that Wisconsin manufacturing remains at the forefront of global competitiveness.
And the partnerships that we're building on.
This is building not only on great work that's been going on in Milwaukee at the Connected Systems Institute.
This builds on this long-standing partnership that we've had at Green Bay at Title Town Tech, co-founded in 2019 by Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers.
And now we are connecting Title Town Tech with UW Milwaukee and, oh my gosh, thank you to Mark Murphy and Ed Policy.
As you all know, there are two things that unite the people of Wisconsin, God and the Green Bay Packers.
And we could do none of this without the local labor leaders that are involved.
The leaders of the IBEW, the leaders of the Plumbers and Steem Fitter's Union.
And we're so pleased, in my view, to be joined today by Liz Schuler, the national president of the AFL-CIO, someone.
I have learned so much from Liz about how a great technology company and a great set of labor organizations can forge the kind of partnership that will create the jobs and opportunity for the people not just of today, but for the future.
And then I just want to say it starts at the local level.
Mount Pleasant, what an extraordinary place.
When I look at Dave DeGroote, the village president, when I see the county executive for Racine, for the mayor of Racine, Governor Evers from his first meeting with me to do the things that needed to be done to make this happen.
But I want you to know something else, because I think it's especially fitting on a day like today.
Everything that we are doing here in Racine County, Wisconsin is also benefiting directly from the work of this White House and this president over the last four years.
Every day, you see the news of the day, but what really matters is the work over a number of years.
And in 2021, this president sat down across the aisle and persuaded our Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure law, a bipartisan infrastructure law that is investing in the roads and bridges that are needed to bring the steel to this plant
that have injected more than a billion dollars into a cause in which we've long believed bringing broadband connectivity to everyone in the state of Wisconsin.
That's a part of this.
And then again in 2022, it took people coming together in Washington to pass the chips in Science Act because believe me, a data center without chips doesn't do very much for anybody.
And again in 2022, because of the inflation reduction act, it became possible to aim higher to achieve the climate and energy goals that also are indispensable to what we need to do as a country.
We need to do as a company and all of us need to do as a community right here.
And then last year in 2023, this White House, this administration and this president really led the tech sector and the country and even the world to recognize how much AI was changing the world, but that we need to ensure that it's safe,
that it's secure, that it's used responsibly, and they brought people together so we could move fast to do precisely that.
And finally, every day since the first day of the inauguration in 2021, I just have to say, as someone who spends part of every single day working on and worrying about the cybersecurity protection of our customers in this nation,
no administration has done as much as this administration to protect the cybersecurity of our communities and our country as a whole.
It takes all kinds of people that find a way to get things done.
And as I introduce the person who will introduce the president, the person who is doing the recruiting to bring in the people that will build the building that will house the technology that will serve the world.
Nick Fick, who comes from the IBEW right here in receipt, let me leave you with one final thought.
I hope that with everything else that's going on in the world today, people here in Wisconsin and people across the country will just take a moment to remember this.
This day shows something important.
It shows that America remains what it has always been.
We are a country where people come together, where people work together, where they address hard challenges, and we get great things done.
We won't let you down.
Please.
Welcome, Nick Fick.
Thank you.
Wow, that's going to be a tough act to follow there.
It's good to see all your friendly faces in the crowd today.
Good morning.
My name is Nick Fick.
I'm a proud 23 year member of the International Brotherhood of electrical workers, local 430 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Thank you.
I was born and raised here, but a few years after I completed my apprenticeship, the contractor I was working for had to explore all options due to lack of work in the area.
I traveled the country for them.
Then came back home to start a family.
In 2017, good news about local economic development was hard to come by.
When plans were announced for a new high tech manufacturing complex in Racine, it could not have come at a better time.
Unfortunately, we all know what happened next.
After all that hype and all that hope, the promises made by Donald Trump failed to come to in Racine County.
But now our luck has changed.
Microsoft plans to spend billions of dollars to build data centers on the same property Foxconn has abandoned.
Now local 430 members are installing temporary power and lighting along with the preliminary underground work needed.
And this is just the start.
They are calling this site Microsoft's Crown Jewel, the biggest footprint of any Microsoft facility in the world.
That means long term work for hundreds of skilled professional IBEW electricians for 10 to 15 years.
Now I have the good fortune to have the job here at home organizing electricians into the IBEW.
Thank you.
Thanks to Joe Biden, advanced manufacturing jobs are coming back to America and back to our hometown.
We are grateful to Microsoft for investing in America and here in Mount Pleasant.
And also to President Biden, who promised to bring infrastructure back.
To bring manufacturing back. To bring good paying union jobs back.
Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Biden keeps his promises.
It is an honor for me to introduce to you the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hello Wisconsin.
Nick, thanks for the introduction.
Look, before I get started, I want to set the record straight. Please sit down.
I went to Catholic High School in Delaware, taught by the Norbertine Priest,
from St. Norbert's College. There's a little team called Green Bay.
Now here's a deal.
We were the only high school in Delaware, but overwhelmingly rooted for Green Bay.
Not a joke, I'll tell you why.
Every single Sunday, not only to have great teams at the time,
I still do, but not only that.
My theology professor at the Catholic School I went to was a guy named Riley, last name,
and he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers.
And he decided to become a priest before that, so he didn't go.
But every single solitary Monday at Green Bay One, we got the last period of the day off.
Now, we Catholics call that indirect bribery, but it worked.
It's always great to be with one of the best governors in America, Tony ever.
I think it's only I mean it. I think of one word, integrity.
You're a man of absolute integrity.
And what I'm really doing, I'm really auditioning for a job
with a little company who's going to build something out here.
Thank you for the comments you made about what we're doing together.
Well, look, while she couldn't be here, I want to thank one of the best U.S. senators in the United States
of America, a good friend of mine, Tammy Baldwin.
You also got a great mirror in racing. Corey Mason.
Brad Smith, President Microsoft, thank you for your partnership
for showing how we get things done and big things done in America.
And thank you for your friendship.
I'm going to win.
And this shoulder, President, I'll say I thank you for all you do
for the benefit of the American Union movement.
You know, I get called to the most pro-union present American history.
I make no apologies for it.
I'm serious.
Middle-class-filled America, but unions built the middle class.
I've been saying that for a long time.
Folks, I'm here to talk about a great comeback story in America.
I'm sure you remember, race scene was once a manufacturing boom town
all the way through the 1960s.
Power companies invented a manufacturing windex
for portable vacuum cleaners and so much more and powered by middle-class jobs.
And then came trickle-down economics, cut taxes for the very wealthy
as the biggest corporations, again in the 60s.
We shipped American jobs overseas because labor was cheaper.
We slashed public investment and education and innovation.
And the result, we hollowed out the middle class.
My predecessor and his administration doubled down on that failed trickle-down economics,
along with the trial of broken promises.
Look, my dad used to have an expression.
He said, Joey, I'm a job minister sincerely.
My dad was a well-read man, never got to go to college,
but he was a good man all across the board.
And he'd say, Joey, remember, a job's a lot more than a paycheck.
It's about your integrity.
It's about your dignity.
It's about being treated with respect.
It's about being able to look at a kid in the eye and say,
honey, everything's going to be okay.
In fact, six years ago,
when my predecessor came to Racine with the promise of,
quote, reclaiming our country's proud manufacturing legacy.
Well, we had infrastructure day every week, every week for four years.
It didn't build a damn thing.
He had an administration promise to $10 billion on investments by Foxconn
to build a new manufacturing complex,
create 13,000 new jobs.
In fact, he came here with your senator Ron Johnson,
literally holding a golden shovel,
promising to build the eighth wonder of the world.
Are you kidding me?
Look what happened.
They dug a hole with those golden shovels,
and then they fell into it.
Look, they didn't shovel another dirt.
They did shovel some dirt.
100 homes were bulldozed.
They wasted hundreds of millions of dollars.
You're staying local tax dollars.
The promise of project had never happened.
Foxconn turned out to be just that, a con.
Go figure.
In just four years under his administration,
instead of creating 13,000 jobs in Racine,
my predecessor and a thousand manufacturing jobs
rather than creating a thousand manufacturing jobs
left Racine, 85,000,
583,500 total jobs left Wisconsin during my predecessor's term.
But that's not on my watch.
We're determined to turn it around.
Thus far, since we've come to office,
we've created, and with the governor's
and overwhelming leadership,
we've created over 178,000 jobs in Wisconsin,
and we're going to create more here in Racine and big time.
Some of my friends in the far right
have criticized my investing in the American agenda,
which includes my bipartisan infrastructure law,
the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
A lot of businesses that have supported
it as a key to economic growth that we're seeing now.
Remember here, you're going to hear recession next week,
recession next week, no soft landing.
In fact, I've asked business leaders like Brad a simple question.
When the United States decides to invest considerable resources
in the new industry that we need to build,
does that encourage or discourage them engaging?
The answer overwhelming is it encourages business investment.
And that's what we're seeing now with our administration.
My investing in the American agenda is fueling historic boom
and rebuilding our roads and bridges,
developing and deploying clean energy,
revitalizing the American manufacturing,
and so much more.
So far, we've created 866 billion dollars
in private sector investment nationwide,
almost a trillion dollars.
Historic amounts, it says a short time.
Now, it's literally creating hundreds of thousands of jobs,
building new semiconductor factors,
electric vehicles and battery factors,
and so much more here, all here in America.
Today, it's another example of the private sector optimism.
Microsoft, as the president already pointed out,
is investing in 3.3 billion dollars
to build a new data center here in Racine.
That's going to help operate one of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems
in the world, and I've gone around the world,
literally, not figuring a meeting with the leading architects of AI.
It's going to result in 2,300 union construction jobs
that's to build a new system.
In 2000, permanent work is to work in the data centers.
In addition, we're also providing a pipeline
to train these for new these new jobs.
A pipeline starts right here at this very spot.
Microsoft is partnering with Gateway Technical Community College
right here to train and certify 200 students a year
to fill high demand good paying jobs
and data and IT at Microsoft's new AI Day Center here in Racine.
That's not all.
In addition, Microsoft is continuing to pipeline
going to high schools and nearby Mount Pleasant
to train high school students for jobs in the future
as the boss pointed out, it's going to create 100,000 jobs over time.
It's all part of Microsoft's broad plan to build an artificial intelligence ecosystem
right here in Racine.
It's going to be transformative, not just here, but worldwide.
It's not only a significant investment in infrastructure in Racine,
but for the people of Racine.
It means folks are getting trained, folks are getting trained
in new high paying high school jobs
that don't require a four-year college degree
and don't require you to leave home.
You know, where I come from, that really matters.
I notice like when your parents have to move the family in search of work
because of no jobs.
What it does to the family's dignity.
My wife, too, teaches full-time in the community college,
cares a lot about this as well.
Last year, she announced our first five workforce hub sites
to build a pipeline of workers and industries that create the new hometowns
that are creating the new hometowns in Phoenix, Baltimore,
Columbus, Ohio, Augusta, Georgia,
pulling everything from semiconductors to electric vehicles.
Last month, I announced four new hubs to continue to train workers
for the jobs of the future, one of which is in Milwaukee
that trains workers to help replace every poisonous lead pipe in America
in a decade and funded by the infrastructures.
And, by the way,
Buy America has been the longest ever taken for AI safety, security, and trust.
This order helps make sure workers have a seat at the table
in determining how these technologies are developed and used
for real.
And will support workers in every industry
by defending the right to a fair wage to organize
as these technologies emerge across the board,
and we're going to happen.
During the previous administration,
my predecessor made promises which he broke more than kept,
left a lot of people behind in communities like Racine.
On my watch, we make promises and we keep promises.
And we need no one behind.
Since I took office, we've added nearly 4,000 jobs in Racine.
As I said earlier, we've added 178,000 in the state of Wisconsin.
The unemployment rate has hit a record low in Racine.
Racine has seen some of the strongest new business growth in all of Wisconsin.
And it's only just beginning.
We're seeing a great American comeback story all across Wisconsin.
And quite frankly, the entire country.
The bottom line is, we're doing what's always worked in this country,
giving people a fair shot, leaving nobody behind,
and growing the economy in the middle of the bottom up,
not the top down.
When that happens, everybody does what?
Everybody does what?
Money closes this.
When folks see a new factor being built here in Wisconsin,
people going to work making a really good wage in their hometowns.
I hope they feel the pride that I feel.
Pride in their hometowns making a comeback.
Pride in knowing we can get big things done in America still.
Folks, I've never been more optimistic,
and I've only been around a couple years, I know.
I know it don't look, but I'm on a 40-plus-2 type of item.
I've never been more optimistic about it.
We just have to remember who else we are.
We're the United States of America.
And there's nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.
Nothing.
I mean that.
Nothing.
The rest of the world looks to us.
So keep it going.
God bless you all and may God protect our troops.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
Don't jump.