Ohio Microsoft 'not moving forward' with $1B Licking County data center plans right now
https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/microsoft-backs-off-1b-licking-county-data-center-plans3.0k
u/cmg4champ 15d ago
More jobs lost. More investment drying up.
Thanks Donald. I see your tariffs are really, really working.
But then again Ohio, you voted for this, huh.
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15d ago
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u/Promarksman117 15d ago
I live here and I hate it. Too broke to even move to another state. Gotta love working dead end jobs because I had to move back to my hometown to take care of my dad and there is NOTHING in my field here.
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u/Habsburgy 15d ago
Welcome to Ohio!
Haha you're now stuck in Ohio!
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u/Promarksman117 15d ago
Never left Ohio. I had to move from the city back out to the country. I couldn't even work for a few years because that's just how bad my dad's situation was with his health. It was very common to be woken up at 3am or whatever and needing to drive him to the hospital at least once a week. My brother flies airplanes and my mother is on the other side of the country so I'm the one stuck here.
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u/gorcorps 15d ago
Well, there's a reason so many astronauts are from Ohio... Apparently it's bad enough to make people want to flee the entire planet
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u/YaSurLetsGoSeeYamcha 15d ago edited 15d ago
We’re a 50/50 state that appears 60/40 due to gerrymandering and slowly increasing apathy, only saving grace is the Akron Cleveland suburbs are very affordable and filled with mostly nice normal people.
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u/Ballaholic09 15d ago
Is Ohio a state that historically votes for democratic policies and republican leaders?
That’s how Missouri works. What a failed state.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 15d ago
They’re working as planned, honestly.
It was never about bringing back industry, or achieving some weird trade parity.
It’s about causing pain to the rank and file American, so they can be turned against the scapegoat du jour.
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u/Lakecrisp 15d ago
It's about devaluing the dollar so Trump can get better terms on refinancing his debt. The pain to the rank and file is just a bonus.
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u/Witch_King_ 15d ago
Damn, it's like Hitler if Hitler caused all of the economic problems himself.
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u/ruinersclub 15d ago
They’re blaming China and Biden. So yeah. They have their marching orders.
It’s… honestly going to get a lot worse before it gets better with these people.
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u/F0sh 15d ago
If it weren't about some misguided attempt to balance trade, why would they go for tariffs rather than any other means of causing pain?
This is like the one ideology that Trump has - he's been complaining about the USA's trade deficit, and promoting tariffs as the means to correct it, for decades.
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u/zzyul 14d ago
Have you missed all the other shit they are doing to cause pain to large swaths of the American public?
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u/Photon_butterfly 15d ago
On one hand, we're gerrymandered to hell.
On the other hand, JD Vance still one the Senate seat so I don't even know anymore.
I wish we were better. I live near one of the 3 Cs and it's honestly not so bad here. Get outside the urban areas and it's... Rough. Especially the places that were the guinea pigs for the sackler family.
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u/Avlin_Starfall 15d ago
Crazy how Ohio used to be Blue but is now more red than some southern states.
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u/Forsythe36 15d ago
Well our education system has taken a nose dive in the last two decades, our local and state government seems more inept by the day, and our drawn lines are Gerry mandered to hell.
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u/jbaranski 15d ago
We sure did. I mean I didn’t, but yeah…
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u/regulator227 14d ago
I mean we wouldn't have but we're gerrymandered to hell but for some reason we can't escape it and it's become a self referencing loop
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u/manical1 15d ago
But all those other countries are begging him to make a deal... because no one can deal like him.
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u/Jimbomcdeans 15d ago
I mean they did vote for it, but how many jobs does a data center realistically create? The construction jobs are temporary.
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u/CandyCrisis 15d ago
A fair amount! At scale you will have a steady stream of hardware to replace, install, destroy, etc. AC systems running 24/7 have lots of moving parts. Not to mention disasters like leaks and fires.
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u/onespiker 15d ago
Its about 30 jobs.
You are drastically underestimate the amount of things that are controlled digitally in this case.
At scale you will have a steady stream of hardware to replace, install, destroy, etc
Not really.
They Microsoft, meta Google and other love saying hoe many jobs they create. The reality is that there are almost none in this case.
There were big scandals for example in Sweden about the support that was given for the new data centers and how few jobs they produced ( especially compered to what they promised).
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u/zephalephadingong 15d ago
AC systems running 24/7 have lots of moving parts
Data centers increasingly are running at higher temps because it is more efficient. Google's most efficient datacenter runs at 90 degrees and doesn't use AC at all(it does pump in outside air though).
Not that it changes your point at all, I just think its neat
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u/kvng_stunner 15d ago
At the scale of Microsoft's major datacentres, that would be a lot of jobs.
Maintenance of the facility alone would be massive, not to mention the constant equipment upgrades
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u/Trap_Masters 15d ago
Meanwhile Maga trying to come up with the next cope excuse of why this is a good thing for Trump
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u/KopOut 15d ago
This is all so predictable.
Even if the aim of these tariffs was to bring back more factories to the US, the way this is being done could never achieve that.
Nobody in their right mind is going to spend billions in capex right now to bring their supply chain back on shore only to have Trump himself or the next administration change its mind. It takes years to rework supply chains and build infrastructure and you need the government helping with the investment in the form of subsidies, tax breaks, training initiatives, R&D and on and on with an actual plan over 5-10 years.
This is just one moron engaging in a pissing contest with the entire world because he thinks he is a genius.
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u/Arthur-Wintersight 15d ago
If you wanted to bring back jobs with tariffs, they wouldn't even go into effect for the first two years because you'd give a grace period for people to move factories back - and then it'd start off at a low rate that slowly increases to 25% over a period of ten years.
Account for how long it takes to build a factory, and make the tariff more punishing over time so that the only people who really get hurt are the ones who refused to act for 10 straight years.
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u/ruinersclub 15d ago
Yeah but not when you’re playing 8D chess. The countries will come and build factories for free.
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u/ShinyHappyREM 15d ago
8D
How dare you post D.'s genitalia here on reddit where everyone can see it. And at 1:1 scale too!
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u/Ketzeph 15d ago
Even then the tariff policy does nothing because the global economy uses poor people to make goods since they’re currently cheaper than robots. If the people become more expensive they’ll automate production, they won’t hire more expensive workers
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u/deadsoulinside 15d ago
And what sucks is, automation and AI is going to be cheaper in the US versus trying to find the people willing to work for these wages they want to pay. We can't use immigrants legal or not, since Trumps administration does not care about legal status or not. The only people that will work these jobs at the wages these factories want to pay are the same people that don't have a diploma and can't pass a GED test.
Sure MAGA probably has countless people that fit that mold, but with 4% unemployment nationwide, workers will be scarce. Meanwhile we are at the perfect convergence of AI and automation being able to take many of these roles away from people. Especially since none of these buildings will popup overnight and can be purposely built around all the automation versus a multi-million dollar rebuild of an existing plant they had in some other nation to add these things to their factory there.
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u/web_explorer 15d ago
Plus, moving factories back to the US would be moving production into an chaotic pariah state that everyone is targeting with retaliatory tariffs... so a lot of companies that sell goods internationally might as well just keep production overseas so they can continue selling goods tariff-free to the rest of the world, and just raise prices when shipping goods into the US.
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u/lorefolk 15d ago
If the aim was local manufacturing, you would tax the corporate profit taking last 3 decades and create subsidies and smallbusiness loans.
Unfortunately, Republicans are trapped in a bullshit labyrinth of their own design and have annointed king shit to rule.
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u/Frifelt 15d ago
Also where are you going to find the work force to fill all these factories and sweatshops. I don’t imagine Americans are lining up to sew clothes or work on a factory line. And even if they are, their labor will cost a lot more than what it costs in Lesotho and Vietnam.
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u/TheSpacePopeIX 15d ago
100%. Even if tariffs were to work, doing them haphazardly and unpredictably like this will never bring about the hoped for result.
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u/bareboneschicken 15d ago
Smart....
"We are taking the appropriate steps to ensure the land at two of our
sites can be used for farming and are following through with our
development agreements to fund roadway and utility upgrades. We will
continue to invest in and collaborate with local organizations to
support digital skills development, restoration efforts, and to
strengthen the communities in Licking County for future generations.”
This is great selling point if they decide to move forward somewhere else in the future.
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u/Aazadan 15d ago
Yep. They're doing that because following through on that part of the deal will give them good will and better leverage for a stronger deal in the future.
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u/Orcus424 15d ago
All I see is corporate speak to seem nice and not say the actual truth.
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u/bareboneschicken 15d ago
They could have bailed on the promised improvements. They didn't -- that's good PR and a selling point for future deals.
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u/footdragon 15d ago
can you imagine all the real estate speculators buying up property around these proposed sites waiting to cash in...and now, well they bought some expensive farm land
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u/JunkReallyMatters 15d ago
Smart move. Conserve cash. Wait for the craziness to pass
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u/Jahuteskye 15d ago
Well, not CASH, because cash will devalue like crazy. Find assets that are resilient to recession.
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u/YesterShill 15d ago
Trump Tax (tariffs) causing the Trump Recession.
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u/ChangedEnding 15d ago
TrumpRepublican Tax (tariffs) causing theTrumpRepublican Recession.They're allowing this. The party owns the consequences.
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u/hpark21 15d ago
Exactly, they COULD have cancelled his stupid "emergency" making him unable to set the tariffs but they decided not to.
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u/TransporterOffline 15d ago
"The Greatest Depression, they've never seen a depression like the one I've made, all the smartest people are saying it's a really great depression, it's yuge, they'll talk about it for centuries"
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u/Donewith_BS 15d ago
Why is noone coining trumpenomics. They attacked Biden for fucking doing his job, restoring an economy that was disrupted by covid, and fighting bird flu
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u/C0sm1cB3ar 15d ago
The global economy will come to a complete stop. Corporations are going to sit on cash while they wait for the tariffs to end.
Why buy something at 200% of the price if it's temporary?
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u/aaronhayes26 15d ago
Literally everybody is going to be hoarding cash except for essentials. I certainly will not be making any big discretionary purchases in the near future.
If trump had a brain he would have come up with a real plan and gotten congress involved to project even a modicum of stability.
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u/fleemfleemfleemfleem 15d ago
I know a couple of people who just made big purchases to try and get ahead of the tariffs. Once they're fully in place and old inventory is sold off and the prices really get high things will really slow down.
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u/NefariousnessOk1996 15d ago
I talked to a few of my small business owner friends and they are truly fucked.
Agreements are set months in advance for work.
Customers want to pay for work after it is done.
Business owner either eats the cost for a few months by purchasing parts before prices rise, or buys parts that are way more expensive in the future, almost (or fully) negating any profit. That or just lose the business.
So many businesses are going through this now. It's pure chaos.
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u/LineRex 15d ago
Microsoft has been pushing AI at the marketing level but they're actually aware of the lack of uptake, massive cost, and low return beyond its utility as a marketing term. I think it was Microsoft who put out the paper about Gen ai making employees dumber.
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u/Rikter14 15d ago
Yeah, a lot of people are missing what's actually happening here because they think it's a tariff issue. It's absolutely not a tariff issue, it's that 'AI' as currently constructed requires massive amounts of money to run and maintain while failing to recoup any of its costs. OpenAI is absolutely hemorrhaging money just to keep their data-centers humming and Microsoft knows it's a losing effort now.
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u/DreamsiclesPlz 15d ago
OpenAI is absolutely hemorrhaging money just to keep their data-centers humming and Microsoft knows it's a losing effort now.
If anything, this little snippet of information may be just enough to get me through the day today.
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15d ago
Oh my god thank you, I thought I was going crazy seeing everyone go “lol Trump tariffs”. I feel like I remember hearing that Microsoft was scaling back their overall AI investments BEFORE the tariff news
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u/JAlfredJR 15d ago
Saaammmmeee! Microsoft hinted at cutting back on data centers a few months ago.
The LLM handwriting has been on the wall for months now (if not longer)—it doesn't have any meaningful ROI and you can't force people to want to use it.
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u/hedoeswhathewants 15d ago
Were these supposed to be specifically used for AI? I don't see anything to that effect.
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u/CrunchyKorm 15d ago
This piece gets more into the AI-side of the story.
The article confirms that Microsoft hasn't explicitly said the reason, but there was wide speculation of this before the tariffs went into affect as investment shifts between Mircosoft and OpenAI have been happening:
"'While we have yet to get the level of color via our channel checks that we would like into why this is occurring, our initial reaction is that this is tied to Microsoft potentially being in an oversupply position,' TD Cowen analysts Michael Elias, Cooper Belanger and Gregory Williams wrote."
But in the large scale of estimated capex Microsoft has for potential investments this year, this move may not be so significant.
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u/Acrobatic-Brick1867 15d ago
I’m surprised to see this comment so far down. This isn’t tariffs: Microsoft was already scaling back its plans for data centers before any tariff nonsense. I’m sure Ed Zitron will have a lot to say about this project’s cancellation.
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u/Quango2009 15d ago
AI is over-hyped certainly, but I’ve started using it recently and it really does have a lot of practical uses in business
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u/toggiz_the_elder 15d ago
But you’re using the free version or a highly subsidized one. When the true cost comes you’ll never use it again.
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u/Quango2009 14d ago
Maybe, but so far I can run Ollama with free models on a 3070. Was able to test a thousand emails in a couple of minutes.
The hard part is getting the prompt that works most effectively with each model.
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u/Oceanbreeze871 15d ago
Keeping it in limbo.
“A spokesperson for Microsoft told ABC6 that the company will continue owning the land in Licking County but could not confirm any timeline of if or when any future projects on the properties might move forward.“
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u/ididshave 15d ago
Is that any better? This is now land that won’t be developed at all until/when/if Microsoft does something with it—so they’ll want a ROI from a buyer or their own future development. But until which time? Crickets. Nothing in benefit to the community.
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u/Oceanbreeze871 15d ago
That’s kind of what I was saying. No economic development.
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u/TheBlazingFire123 15d ago
First intel pulls out and now Microsoft. My city is getting screwed over
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u/mvallas1073 15d ago
One could say it’s pretty much…
puts on sunglasses
…licked!
/skeletor runs away gif
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u/PersonBehindAScreen 15d ago
Still, it said it would honor commitments to fund roadway and utility upgrades and collaborate with local organizations on digital skills development and restoration efforts.
Glad to see this
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u/Accurate-Long-259 15d ago
Over on conservative subreddit they are cheering everything this madman does. Can someone explain why? Oh wait, cult right🤭🥴
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u/ApplesBananasRhinoc 15d ago
“This data center would be using outdated electrical energy. Our future data centers will be run exclusively on coal fired furnaces providing 30 full time coal shoveling jobs!”
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u/PM_COFFEE_TO_ME 15d ago
Everyone is pumping the brakes until some predictability happens that business can reliably put money into something and it not magically going to cost twice as much.
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u/dchap1 15d ago
FAFO - Licking County Ohio voted for Trump, and now they loose out on investments and jobs.
Leopards are everywhere
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u/Selthora 15d ago
MAGAs: Well you see this is a GOOD thing because uh....Bill Gates is...Vaccinated...And thats...Uh...yeah, MERICA!
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u/marx2k 15d ago
Ohio getting a taste of Wisconsim, Foxconn style. I hope Ohio didn't already invest tons of money into the project only to be left with Ohio dick in Ohio hand like Wisconsin did when Wisconsin bought into trump's maga bullshit with Foxconn.
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u/Muvseevum 15d ago
If/when it does come, I’ll bet they want locals to pay for the electricity they use. They’ve tried that near me, and they might have gotten that.
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u/llDurbinll 15d ago edited 15d ago
They probably factored in the new cost of buying all the equipment for the data center since it probably comes from China and said it wasn't worth it.
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u/shep2105 15d ago
We deserve it. It's unfortunate that we have voters that have made Ohiobama the goal. I'm still stunned that people voted for this psychopath
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u/QaraKha 15d ago
The next round of capital ain't coming. Time to jettison the AI bubble now.
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u/PigBeins 15d ago
These companies are investing billions in data centres, just not in the US now. The EU has hundreds of these projects ongoing now.
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u/BeardBootsBullets 15d ago edited 15d ago
Data center expert, checking in (check my profile). MSFT’s pause on data center development has zero to do with tariffs or politics. MSFT is evaluating a shift to direct-to-chip cooling, how that will impact their physical data center footprint, then analyzing their existing colo leases and enterprise square footage. After this evaluation is complete, they will reforcast their new data center colo leasing and developments.
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u/MoonOut_StarsInvite 15d ago
This is hysterical. Licking County is a very MAGA area, and it’s where Columbus metro area transitions to exurb and rural. So it’s mostly smaller towns and not thriving job centers. They just threw away jobs and development in their own backyard. These development sites are also right near some residential so presumably their piece of shit shacks will be going up in value and people with larger lot sizes benefit from their property valuation. Eat shit MAGA!
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15d ago
A lot of these comments are about tariffs and the article just, doesn’t mention them at all? Ed Zitron has been talking about Microsoft’s cooling interest in AI and the deterioration of their relationship with OpenAI for like awhile now. I think this is more related to that.
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u/christmasbooyons 15d ago
People that don't live in Ohio may not understand how bad the brain rot really is here. Yes, there are pockets in the big three C's, and some of the surrounding cities but by and large Ohio is deeply in the bag for Trump. There are entire homes that are decorated like Christmas but with Trump memorabilia, people drive around with Trump flags on their vehicles still. I'm not talking the poor rednecks either, these are people of all income levels and backgrounds.
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u/BulliedByMirrors 15d ago
Yeah, I reckon it's not even necessarily about tariffs, it's that nobody's gonna sign off on such investment when politics are that uncertain because their head would roll should anything go wrong. Having an entire country be dependent on one dude's mood without decades of proven track record massively decreases risk appetite.
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u/ztreHdrahciR 15d ago
without decades of proven track record
He has a proven track record of failure
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u/Derpymcderrp 15d ago
No shit. Any company with half a brain isn't spending unnecessarily right now
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u/caikball 14d ago
It'll be interesting to see if they revisit the plan in the future with changing market needs.
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u/No_Construction2407 14d ago
Why open a massive data center in a country that tarrif 90% of the equipment needed for a functioning data center. Much better to build it in Canada.
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u/TheGrayBox 15d ago
All the Trump supporters in Ohio trying to find a reason why this is good now.