In a post on LinkedIn, Noelle Walsh, president of cloud operations + innovation said the company is making 鈥渁djustments鈥� to data centre infrastructure projects.

Microsoft is on track to spend US$80 billion building out data centres according to Walsh, as it expands to 350 facilities across 60 regions worldwide.

But after it emerged that the company was putting a $1 billion data centre expansion project in Ohio on hold, Walsh said she wanted to explain some of the considerations that have shaped Microsoft鈥檚 decision making.

鈥淒ata centre planning is a multi-year and capital-intensive programme we plan for years in advance to ensure we have sufficient infrastructure in the right places. 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,鈥� Walsh said.

鈥淏y nature, any significant new endeavour 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. 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.鈥�

She said Microsoft would continue to invest across 18 countries where it has made infrastructure investments, from Australia in October 2023 to South Africa in March 2025.

Data centres have proven a significant and growing source of new work for major contractors across the globe in recent years, fuelled by high levels of investment in artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

In February this year, US-based Fluor and Germany鈥檚 Hochtief both explained why they still see data centres as a major opportunity for the future and how they plan to succeed in the market.