Microsoft says it's 'slowing or pausing' some AI data center projects, including $1B plan for Ohio

Microsoft said it is “slowing or pausing” some of its data center construction, including a $1 billion project in Ohio, the latest sign that the demand for artificial intelligence technology that drove a massive infrastructure expansion might not need quite as many powerful computers as expected.

The tech giant confirmed this week that it is halting early-stage projects on rural land it owns in central Ohio's Licking County, outside of Columbus, and will reserve two of the three sites for farmland.

“In recent years, demand for our cloud and AI services grew more than we could have ever anticipated and to meet this opportunity, we began executing the largest and most ambitious infrastructure scaling project in our history,” said Noelle Walsh, the president of Microsoft's cloud computing operations, in a post on LinkedIn.

Walsh said “any significant new endeavor at this size and scale requires agility and refinement as we learn and grow with our customers. What this means is that we are slowing or pausing some early-stage projects.”

Microsoft didn't say Wednesday what other projects it has slowed outside of Ohio, but in late December it revealed it was pausing the later phases of a large data center project in Wisconsin.

Analysts with TD Cowen reported earlier this year that Microsoft was also scaling back some of its international data center expansion and canceling some leases in the U.S. for use of data centers operated by other companies.

Other analysts for months have tied some of the changes to a shift in Microsoft's close relationship with its business partner OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT.

“OpenAI was moving in one direction” by prioritizing the development of more advanced AI systems, which require vast computing resources to train on troves of data, while “Microsoft may not have been moving that same direction,” said Craig Ellis, director of research at B. Riley Securities.

The two companies announced on Jan. 21 that they were altering the agreement that had made Microsoft the exclusive provider of OpenAI's computing power, enabling the smaller company to build its own capacity, “primarily for research and training of models.” It was the same day that newly inaugurated President Donald Trump touted OpenAI's partnership with Oracle and SoftBank to pledge $500 billion in new AI infrastructure in the U.S., starting with a data center in Texas.

Microsoft has long built data centers around the world to run its cloud computing services. The generative AI boom accelerated the demand for such facilities, both to train new AI systems and to keep them running as millions of people start using chatbots and other AI tools at work and home.

The computing it takes to run AI tools is expensive and requires a large amount of electricity — so much so that Trump this week cited AI needs as part of the justification for using his emergency authorities to boost the declining U.S. coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source. Tech companies have also sought to tap into nuclear power, including a proposed Microsoft-backed revival of the shuttered Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, which would feed an electricity grid supplying data centers in Ohio as well as Virginia, the nation's biggest data center hub.

Microsoft said it still plans to spend more than $80 billion globally to expand its AI infrastructure this fiscal year, which ends in June, and has already doubled its data center capacity over the past three years.

“While we may strategically pace our plans, we will continue to grow strongly and allocate investments that stay aligned with business priorities and customer demand,” Walsh said.

The Ohio pause nevertheless came as a disappointment to local officials.

Licking County has also attracted data center investments from Microsoft rivals Google and Meta Platforms and a highly anticipated semiconductor factory from Intel, though the struggling chipmaker in February pushed back the expected completion date for the project's first stage to 2030.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman speaks during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Jordan confirmed Saturday that its air force took part in strikes launched by the United States on Islamic State group targets in Syria in retaliation for the killing of three U.S. citizens earlier this month.

The U.S. launched military strikes Friday on multiple sites in in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons in retaliation for an attack by a Syrian gunman that killed two U.S. troops and an American civilian interpreter almost a week earlier.

The Jordanian military said in a statement that its air force “participated in precise airstrikes ... targeting several ISIS positions in southern Syria,” using a different abbreviation for the Islamic State group. Jordan is one of 90 countries making up the global coalition against IS, which Syria recently joined.

The U.S. military did not say how many had been killed in Friday’s strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported that at least five people were killed, including the leader and members of an IS cell.

The Jordanian statement said the operation aimed “to prevent extremist groups from exploiting these areas as launching pads to threaten the security of Syria’s neighbors and the wider region, especially after ISIS regrouped and rebuilt its capabilities in southern Syria.”

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region, said in a statement that its forces “struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery,” with the Jordanian air force supporting with fighter aircraft.

It said that since the Dec. 13 attack in Syria, “U.S. and partner forces conducted 10 operations in Syria and Iraq resulting in the deaths or detention of 23 terrorist operatives,” adding that the U.S. and partners have conducted more than 80 counterterrorism operation in Syria in the past six months.

President Donald Trump had pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS. Those killed were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the militant group. On Friday Trump reiterated his backing for Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who Trump said was “fully in support” of the U.S. strikes against IS.

IS has not taken responsibility for the attack on the U.S. service members, but the group has claimed two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.

As well as killing three U.S. citizens, the shooting near Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed.

The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned while he was under investigation on suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Syrian officials have said.

The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.

This photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a U.S. Airman preparing an A-10 Thunderbolt II for flight from a base in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in support of Operation Hawkeye Strike. (U.S. Air Force/DVIDS via AP)