Most people look at the abandoned former General Motors plant site in Janesville, Wisconsin and see a fenced-off, 250-acre plot contaminated with heavy metals and “forever chemicals” after decades of automotive manufacturing. But some just see a nice new home for an AI data center complex.
According to Politico, the site, which has sat idle for years, could now be snapped up by a Colorado-based investment group. It’s promising to cover the $30 million bill to clean up the land and place an $8 billion data center campus where a busy factory once stood.
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GM’s Samson Tractor Division first started building tractors at the Janesville site in 1919 and vehicle production continued until 2008. About 10 years later, the factory was demolished. In the years since, the city sought to buy the brownfield site and redevelop it.
But now, after 200 interested parties passed on rebuilding the site due to the contamination, it looks like one of the best options on the table is from Viridian Partners. As the report points out, local unions are supporting the proposal, which has promised to create hundreds of permanent jobs and thousands of positions during the construction phase.
Opponents have raised concerns about the vast levels of power needed for the data center as well as its potential environmental impact on nearby residents. The project is facing a ballot initiative aimed at shutting it down and a handful of anti-data-center candidates running for city council.
If the project does move forward, it could potentially validate the Trump Administration’s idea to convert old industrial sites into computing power for a hungry AI market. But it will need to win over the skeptics first.
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