NEW YORK: Meta Platforms announced a significant investment of $1.5 billion to develop a new data center in Texas, marking the opening of its 29th global facility. This move highlights the company’s ongoing efforts to expand its infrastructure to better support artificial intelligence applications.
Located in El Paso, the upcoming data center will be Meta’s third facility in Texas and is scheduled to become operational by 2028. Capable of scaling up to a 1-gigawatt capacity—enough energy to power an entire city like San Francisco for a day—this site will rank among the largest data center campuses planned in the United States.
The surge in AI infrastructure development has driven major cloud providers like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft to plan over $360 billion in investments for 2025, predominantly directed toward data center expansion, according to industry reports.Once operational, the El Paso facility is expected to generate around 100 jobs, with a peak of more than 1,800 construction roles during its development phase. Meta cited El Paso’s strong electrical grid and skilled local workforce as key reasons for choosing the location.
Meta has already invested over $10 billion in Texas and currently employs more than 2,500 individuals across the state. This latest commitment continues that trend, emphasizing Texas’s strategic importance for Meta’s growth.The company is funding the project with $1.5 billion of its own capital. The announcement comes shortly after Meta’s recent $29 billion off-balance-sheet deal with Pimco and Blue Owl to finance a broader data center campus in Louisiana.
Industry experts, including Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, have praised Meta’s rapid expansion, noting that the company’s aggressive investments position it as a leader in the data center race. Barela mentioned that the project was initiated through Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office about four years ago and benefited from local tax incentives and support.
Meta has committed to powering the new data center entirely with renewable energy. It will employ a closed-loop, liquid-cooling system that recycles water continuously. The company also pledged to restore twice the amount of water used—surpassing its 2030 goal of becoming “water-positive” by replenishing local watersheds.
