Meta Pledges $1 Billion To Build AI Data Center In Wisconsin
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure, repeatedly telling investors that he thinks it’s better to overspend on AI than to underspend.
Meta Platforms Inc. is spending more than $1 billion to build a data center in Wisconsin that will power artificial intelligence work, its latest investment in the infrastructure needed for the fast-moving AI race.
The 700,000 square-foot data center will be located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin — a small city north of Madison and Milwaukee, Meta said Wednesday in a statement. It is expected to be operational in 2027, and support about 100 full-time jobs.
Meta said it will work with the local utility, Alliant Energy, and underwrite $200 million in energy infrastructure investments to support the data center, including transmission lines and network upgrades.
Bloomberg News in April reported Meta’s plans to develop a data center in Wisconsin.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure, repeatedly telling investors that he thinks it’s better to overspend on AI than to underspend. The company will invest $600 billion in the US through 2028, Zuckerberg and other executives have said, with much of that money focused on chips, data centers and other equipment. Meta is building gigawatt-sized data centers in several other states, including Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.
Meta executives have described this strategy as a form of “front-loading” computing capacity in preparation for reaching the company’s goal of “superintelligence,” an evolution of AI that can meet or outperform humans at many tasks.
