Microsoft has quietly shelved its ambitious plans to drop $1 billion into Licking County, Ohio data centers—at least for now. The tech giant confirmed it’s no longer moving forward with its previously announced trio of campuses in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron, pulling back just months after the projects were greenlit.
This isn’t just an Ohio story. It’s part of a broader, global recalibration. Microsoft has been hitting the brakes on data center developments across the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the UK—some say as much as 2 gigawatts’ worth of capacity shelved or deferred. Observers have raised eyebrows at the sudden tempo change, especially because they now associate the company so closely with cloud growth.
Microsoft maintains that the slowdown isn’t a retreat, but a strategic pivot. “We’re continuing to evaluate these sites,” a spokesperson told The Columbus Dispatch, adding that while construction is off the table for now, the land will be maintained—farmed, even—until plans reemerge.
Industry watchers express little surprise. Some analysts speculate the company may be managing a moment of overbuild—scaling up capacity that, for the time being, outpaces actual demand. A fine line to walk when customer expectations and AI hype are both at all-time highs.
Microsoft Cloud President Noelle Walsh later chimed in, describing the pause as part of a necessary course correction within one of the largest infrastructure undertakings in company history. Planning years in advance, she said, sometimes means slowing things down to stay aligned with real-world priorities.
For now, the fields in Licking County will remain quiet. But the conversation around how, when, and where hyperscalers build next is only getting louder.
