- Meta crosses the border to build a data center in Alberta, Canada
- The data center will have a capacity of 1 GW and cost $9 billion to build
- This will ultimately lead to 300 operational jobs, says Meta
Meta has announced its ambition to build a $9 billion data center in Alberta, Canada, with a capacity of 1GW.
The project, which was announced in a Meta blog post, is to be built just outside of Edmonton in Sturgeon County, and construction is expected to take two to three years.
Meta says the data center will support about 3,000 jobs during construction and then 300 operations jobs once the data center is up and running.
1GW AI-optimized data center
Alongside the data center, Meta has announced that it will improve local infrastructure with a CAD$60 million in roads and water services. The project will also see its electricity consumption matched with “100% clean and renewable energy”, with the full cost of the data centres’ energy consumption covered by Meta.
“This specific location met the factors we typically look for: good access to infrastructure, a robust grid and access to energy, a strong pool of talent and a great set of community partners that helped us move this project forward,” a Meta spokesperson said. CNBC.
The project marks Meta’s first data center venture in Canada and will join a fleet of 32 other Meta campuses across the globe. Alberta was also chosen because of its lenient regulatory environment, which allows construction to be approved with a relatively small amount of legwork.
Meta also hopes “to plan and meet our energy needs for years before this data center comes online” by working with Canadian energy utilities such as Greenlight Limited Partnership, Altalink, Capitol Power and the Alberta Electric System Operator.
The AI capabilities offerings from Meta are relatively late in the game compared to industry leaders like Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, prompting it to aggressively expand across the US and elsewhere.
Meta is also reportedly venturing into the cloud computing industry by selling excess capacity at some of its completed AI data centers to offset construction costs. Meta predicted it would spend between $125-145 billion on artificial intelligence and data centers by 2026.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
