Microsoft has officially broken ground on a major data center campus in La Porte, Indiana, marking a significant milestone in the company's expanding infrastructure footprint across the state.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place with Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith announcing the event via LinkedIn alongside local officials, including Mayor Tom Dermody.

Ceremony Marks Start of Long-Planned Development

The event brought together local leaders and community members at what Smith described as more than the beginning of a new data center.

"It represents the future of this community and our commitment to being a good neighbor," Smith wrote in his LinkedIn post. Site preparation work had already been underway since March 2026, with the groundbreaking formalizing the construction timeline for what is set to become a substantial presence in the region.

Microsoft's interest in La Porte dates back to at least 2024, when the company first revealed plans to build a 245,000 square foot data center on 489 acres at the Radius Industrial Park.

That initial announcement came as part of a broader one billion dollar investment commitment in Northwest Indiana.

At the time, the first phase of the project was described as comprising six data centers and a substation on that initial plot of land.

Campus Scope Expanded to 17 Buildings

The scale of the project has grown considerably since those original plans were disclosed. In April 2026, Microsoft revealed it was now planning to establish 17 buildings on an expanded plot of land situated between East 250 South, East State Road 4, and Stevens Road in La Porte.

How many of those 17 buildings will function as data centers has not been made clear by the company.

Construction timelines have been laid out in phases.

Work on buildings one through three is scheduled to continue through to the end of 2027, with the data centers in that initial grouping expected to reach completion in 2029.

Jobs, Tax Revenue, and Community Investment

Smith emphasized the economic impact the campus is expected to generate for the local area. The first phase alone is projected to create more than 600 permanent Microsoft jobs, in addition to the thousands of construction jobs associated with building the campus.

Smith also pointed to anticipated growth in local tax revenues, which he said would support schools and the broader community for generations. T

he company has framed the development not only in terms of employment and fiscal contributions but also in terms of its relationship with the surrounding environment.

Smith stated that the campus will be designed using energy-efficient, closed-loop liquid-cooling technologies intended to conserve natural resources.

He added that Microsoft plans to enhance the surrounding ecosystem in ways that will strengthen flood protection and natural habitat in the area.

Technology and Infrastructure Design

The use of closed-loop liquid-cooling technology signals Microsoft's approach to managing the considerable energy and thermal demands associated with large-scale data center operations.

Liquid cooling has become an increasingly important design consideration for hyperscale operators managing the heat generated by high-density computing workloads, particularly as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure has accelerated across the industry.

The company has not publicly disclosed the total power capacity planned for the La Porte campus or the specific specifications of the substation infrastructure associated with the expanded project, beyond what was outlined in the original 2024 announcement covering the first phase.

Indiana Presence Extends Beyond La Porte

La Porte is not the only Indiana location where Microsoft is developing infrastructure.

The company also owns 939 acres in Mishawaka, Indiana, a site that is also thought to be intended for data center development, though specific plans for that location have not been detailed publicly.

La Porte itself sits just south of Michigan City, where Google is currently developing a separate data center campus known as Project Maize.

The proximity of two major technology companies building large-scale computing infrastructure in the same corridor of Northwest Indiana points to the region's growing appeal as a data center destination, driven by factors that typically include available land, power access, and favorable regulatory or tax conditions.

Broader Context of Hyperscale Expansion

Microsoft's groundbreaking in La Porte comes amid a broader wave of hyperscale data center investment across the United States. Competing cloud providers have also been committing substantial capital to new facilities.

The La Porte development represents one of the more prominent examples of how major technology companies are extending their infrastructure buildouts beyond traditional data center hubs into smaller and mid-sized markets, bringing with them construction activity, permanent employment, and tax base growth that local governments have actively competed to attract.