Another day, another multibillion-dollar data center project.
Add Meta Platforms Inc. to the list of Big Tech behemoths with grand plans to build an artificial intelligence (AI) data center – this one a $200 billion facility, according to a report published Tuesday in The Information. Executives at Facebook’s parent company have been in discussions with developers in several states, including Louisiana, Texas and Wyoming, about a possible plant and campus, the news site said.
Meta officials dismissed the report as “pure speculation,” but such a move would be just the latest blockbuster bet in an increasingly costly AI arms race that is racking up some mind-numbing numbers.
Tech giants plan to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI-related operations this year, with a large chunk earmarked for data centers to produce the energy necessary to power AI.
Meta has said it intends to outlay as much as $65 billion in 2025 to ramp up AI infrastructure, up 25% from its 2024 estimate of $52 billion.
The Silicon Valley company, which successfully pivoted to the mobile space after arriving late, is trying to do the same with AI. To that end, it is furiously integrating AI into its products in a sprint to catch up with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Meta has developed Meta AI, an AI-powered digital assistant; folded its AI assistants into messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp; and created AI image editing tools, image generation tools and background generation tools for use on platforms like Instagram.
A massive data center would put an exclamation point on Meta’s all-in AI bid – just days after Apple Inc. announced Monday it will spend more than $500 billion over the next four years on U.S. operations that include a major manufacturing facility in Houston.
The spending doesn’t end there. Stargate, yet another $500 billion project announced last month by President Donald Trump would develop and construct data center facilities in the U.S. over the next four years. The European Union, meanwhile, has vowed to invest up to $206.2 billion in InvestAI.
Not to be left out, Microsoft Corp. is eyeing an $80 billion investment in fiscal 2025, and Amazon.com Inc. expects its spending to exceed $75 billion.
