Spending over 39 billion, Meta steps up its AI push

(Menlo Park / Lebanon, Indiana, Feb 12) — Meta announced on Wednesday (local time, Feb 11) that it has broken ground on a new data center in Lebanon, Indiana. The project, worth more than US$10 billion (about RM39.08 billion), marks Meta’s latest push to rapidly expand its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Meta said the facility will span about 4 million square feet and deliver more than 1 gigawatt (GW) of power capacity—enough to supply electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes. The data center is expected to support both Meta’s AI workloads and its core product services, and is described as one of the largest infrastructure projects the company has undertaken to date.

The data center is scheduled to begin operations by late 2027 or early 2028.

Meta added that construction is expected to peak with over 4,000 workers on site, while the completed facility will create around 300 long-term jobs. The company also plans to invest US$120 million (about RM468.9 million) in local infrastructure upgrades.

In its latest earnings update, Meta said it plans to invest up to US$135 billion by 2026 in AI expansion and infrastructure such as data centers. Meta’s spending for 2025 reached US$72.2 billion (about RM28.21 billion).

As major tech firms intensify the computing-capacity race, Alphabet has indicated it will spend US$180 billion in 2026, while Amazon has projected US$200 billion. Markets have reacted unevenly to rising capex: Google and Amazon shares faced pressure at one point, while Meta’s stock jumped more than 10% before giving back part of those gains.

The growing wave of data center projects has also triggered local concerns over rising energy costs and noise from cooling systems. To build community support, Meta said it will cover all electricity costs for the facility and commit US$1 million annually for 20 years to the Boone REMC community fund to help residents with power bills, along with emergency water-cost assistance.

Meta also said the site will use a closed-loop water system and claims that, for most of the year, it will not require any water use. The company will invest over US$120 million to improve water infrastructure, alongside upgrades to roads, transmission lines, and nearby public utilities.

Other tech firms have introduced similar measures. Last month, Microsoft President Brad Smith said Microsoft would work with local utilities to increase transparency around data-center power demand and cover costs when grid upgrades are needed. Google also agreed in August last year to reduce electricity use during peak periods in some areas to ease pressure on power grids.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said in July that the company plans a massive “Hyperion” facility in Louisiana—describing it as large enough to cover a significant portion of Manhattan—with the capacity to scale beyond 5 GW, underscoring Meta’s strategy of building mega-scale data centers for AI.