Meta (META) is expanding its data center footprint north of the border into Canada. The company on Wednesday said it will construct its first Canadian data center in Alberta as part of its broader AI build-out.
The 1-gigawatt data center, the 33rd facility in Meta's global fleet, which includes international facilities in Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, and Singapore, will cost roughly $9.18 billion and support 3,000 construction jobs. When it's completed, it will have 300 workers.
Meta says it is also paying $42.4 million to upgrade local infrastructure in the area. The company added that the new facility will use what it says is a closed-loop, liquid-cooling system with dry cooling, which won't require any operational water use. The only water Meta says the facility will use will be related to fire safety and domestic use.
In its current fiscal year, Meta plans to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on data centers and related expenses. That's spooked investors, with Meta stock falling 16% over the last 12 months and 8.6% year to date.
Wall Street has also raised concerns about Meta's ability to execute on its AI roadmap, especially after its prior-generation Llama 4 models fell short of expectations last year.
Since then, however, the company has reworked its AI efforts around its Meta Superintelligence Labs. It released its first model under the new organization, called Muse Spark, in April.
On Tuesday, Meta debuted its second Muse model: Muse Image.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Meta is moving forward with plans to sell excess computing capacity to third-party customers, potentially putting it into direct competition with hyperscalers like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT), as well as neocloud providers like CoreWeave (CRWV).
CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the idea of selling excess computing capacity during Meta's prior earnings calls.
The move could provide the company with a new revenue stream that would bolster its bottom line and give investors a better understanding of how it plans to monetize its massive cash outlay.
Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @DanielHowley.
Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance