Meta to build US$9bil data centre in western Canada

TORONTO: Meta said Wednesday it plans to build a US$9 billion data centre in western Canada’s Alberta province, in what local officials called one of the largest private-sector investments ever in Canada.

Making the announcement in Calgary alongside Alberta premier Danielle Smith, Meta’s vice-president for data centre development Gary Demasi said the facility will be the company’s largest outside the US.

Smith said “Alberta is the ideal North American spot for data centres thanks to affordable electricity, flexible power generation, a cooler climate and a skilled workforce.”

“The global race for computing power is ramping up like never before,” she added.

The facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta, is set to span 269,419 square metres.

Smith said the project would support several thousand Canadian jobs and generate approximately US$175 million “annually in benefits for Albertans”.

“This is one of the largest private-sector investments in Canadian history,” she told reporters, sporting a cowboy hat to mark the ongoing annual rodeo, the Calgary Stampede.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is spending massively on artificial intelligence, which needs data centres to operate.

US data centre construction spending has surged in recent years, with tech firms pouring tens of billions of dollars into building out infrastructure amid the race to lead in AI.

But public backlash is growing.

Critics of data centres point to the facilities’ high electricity consumption, which can strain local grids and drive up energy bills, as well as their heavy water use, noise generation and the relatively small number of jobs they create.

New York state’s legislature last month passed a one-year moratorium on data centre construction. A similar measure passed in Maine in April but was ultimately vetoed by the state’s governor.