Meta has begun construction on a $10 billion data center in Lebanon, Indiana, designed to fuel its artificial intelligence ambitions. The project, which will consume approximately 1 gigawatt of power, is one of the largest AI infrastructure investments in the world.
The facility is expected to come online between late 2027 and early 2028, marking a turning point in the tech race to dominate generative AI.
Project dimensions
Unprecedented scale
To put $10 billion in context: it is more than double the cost of building SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles ($5.5 billion) and equals the annual GDP of countries like Malta or the Bahamas.
The data center will occupy a massive site in Indiana and will be specifically designed to train next-generation AI models, including the successors to LLaMA 4.
1 gigawatt of power consumption
One gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes. Meta needs this enormous amount of energy for the thousands of GPUs that will train its AI models. The energy consumption of AI has become one of the most important debates in the tech sector.
Why Meta is investing so heavily in AI
Competition with OpenAI and Google
Meta is in a direct race with OpenAI (backed by Microsoft) and Google for AI leadership. Mark Zuckerberg has publicly stated that AI is the company's number one priority, displacing even the metaverse.
AI monetization
Meta plans to integrate advanced AI into all its products:
- Instagram and Facebook: content generation, hyper-personalized recommendations
- WhatsApp: AI assistants for businesses
- Reality Labs: AI-powered mixed reality experiences
- Advertising: automatic ad optimization with generative AI
Impact on the local community
Jobs and economy
The project will create thousands of jobs during construction and hundreds of permanent positions once operational. For Lebanon, Indiana (population ~38,000), it represents a transformative economic boost.
Energy concerns
However, the 1 gigawatt consumption raises concerns:
- Power grid: may strain local electrical infrastructure
- Carbon footprint: unless renewable energy is used, the environmental impact will be significant
- Water: data centers require massive amounts of water for cooling
The AI infrastructure race by the numbers
Meta is not alone in investing massively:
- Microsoft: $80 billion planned for AI data centers in 2025-2026
- Google: $30 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in 2025
- Amazon (AWS): $25 billion in data centers in 2025
- Meta: $10+ billion for this project plus others in development
In total, big tech is investing more than $150 billion annually in AI infrastructure, a figure that exceeds the GDP of many countries.
What it means for the future of technology
The scale of these investments indicates that major tech companies are betting that generative AI will be the dominant technology platform of the next decade, similar to what the internet was in the 2000s or smartphones in the 2010s.
For users, this means AI-powered products will become increasingly sophisticated, but it also raises questions about energy consumption, privacy, and the concentration of power in a few companies.
