Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify who called Meta’s New Albany data center campus likely the world’s first online gigawatt data center.
Meta’s New Albany data center campus will house what the CEO previously said will likely be the world’s first online gigawatt data center.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, is calling the facility Prometheus — a gigawatt “supercluster” expected to come online in 2026, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a July social media post across Meta’s platforms.
A company spokesperson confirmed Sept. 25 that Prometheus is being built in New Albany. The company began expanding its New Albany complex in 2022.
“We are excited about the New Albany Data Center becoming an even bigger part of our AI infrastructure for the future,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in a Sept. 25 email to The Dispatch.
Prometheus is part of the tech giant’s investment of “hundreds of billions of dollars” in superintelligence labs. The company is building another supercluster, called Hyperion, that will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over several years, Zuckerberg wrote.
Data centers house servers that are the backbone of the AI, or artificial intelligence, boom. But they have faced questions and criticism about their drain on local resources, including the amount of power and water they require, the vast amounts of land they occupy, and the relatively small number of jobs they create after the facilities are in operation.
Meta announced in 2022 it was again expanding its data center operations — initially announced in 2017 — at 1500 Beech Road in the Licking County portion of New Albany, just off State Route 161. The addition boosts Meta’s investment in New Albany by $500 million to $1.5 billion, The Dispatch reported at the time.
To support the Prometheus supercluster, Meta is adding at least 900,000 square feet to its Beech Road facility, according to the Meta spokesperson’s email.
The city of New Albany wrote in a Sept. 24 statement to The Dispatch that it’s grateful for Meta’s continued partnership with the eastern suburb and values the tech company’s support of the area’s schools, nonprofits, and workforce development.
“Meta’s decision to build its data center campus here is a meaningful vote of confidence in our business-friendly environment and the people who make this community thrive. When a company chooses to return and grow its operations here, it demonstrates that New Albany is the kind of place where businesses can succeed and contribute to community vitality,” the statement reads.
Will-Power OH, LLC, a subsidiary of energy company Williams Companies, is constructing a 200 megawatt natural gas-fired electric power plant to provide electricity for Meta’s expanded data center.
Delaware County and eastern Columbus suburbs reporter Maria DeVito can be reached at mdevito@dispatch.com and @mariadevito13.dispatch.com on Bluesky and @MariaDeVito13 on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Meta expanding New Albany site for the world’s highest capacity data center
Reporting by Maria DeVito, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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