[NEW YORK] Meta Platforms plans to spend nearly US$1 billion on the development of a data centre project in central Wisconsin, underscoring a larger effort from the social media giant to ramp up investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure.
In February, the state of Wisconsin struck an incentive deal with an unnamed company using an alias to develop a data centre in the state with an expected multiyear investment of US$837 million, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The company behind the project is Meta, according to one source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public.
A Meta spokesperson declined to provide a statement. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation said its “practice is to identify the companies it works with once a contract is approved”.
Major tech companies have rushed to expand data centre capacity in recent years to accommodate cloud computing needs and increasingly complex AI models. Meta has said it plans to spend as much as US$65 billion this year, with a focus on building AI-oriented infrastructure, including constructing a massive facility in Louisiana. It already has data centres in the Midwest, including Iowa and the Chicago suburb of DeKalb. The Wisconsin project would add to a flood of major data centres being developed in the US.
Still, investors have questioned whether the pace of data centre construction is sustainable following pullbacks from Microsoft, the emergence of cheaper AI models, and the potential impact of tariffs.
Meta is applying AI across all of its businesses – an effort that affects how Instagram and Facebook target users with ads, and how content is ordered in people’s feeds. It’s also being used in the company’s consumer hardware, including the Meta Quest headsets and Ray-Ban Meta glasses. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg told investors in late January that he anticipates Meta will ultimately spend hundreds of billions on AI.
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Wisconsin has recently emerged as an attractive location for hyperscalers to build data centres. South of Milwaukee, Microsoft is developing a facility that could eventually become one of its most powerful. OpenAI’s Stargate venture has also said Wisconsin is one of the states it’s eyeing for expansion.
“This project would potentially provide transformative future economic benefits to the community and area,” wrote the local economic development authority, the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation, in a February note to media.
That month, the city’s economic development entity wrote in the February note that it was working with Alliant Energy on the project, and had already approved development and water agreements. The project is yet to be finalised and still subject to non-local approvals, the group said.
An Alliant Energy spokesperson said the company is in “exploratory and due diligence phases” of a potential project in Beaver Dam, and more information will be coming. BLOOMBERG
