Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced a landmark investment of $1.5 billion to construct a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) data center in El Paso, Texas. This new facility marks Meta’s 29th data center globally and its third in Texas, underscoring the company’s aggressive expansion in AI infrastructure to support high-performance computing for next-generation AI applications.
The El Paso data center is designed to eventually scale up to a one-gigawatt power capacity—enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco for a full day—making it one of the largest proposed data center campuses in the United States. The facility’s tremendous energy capability reflects Meta’s vision to support the intensive computing demands of AI workloads, including training and deploying advanced AI models, as the company pushes toward what CEO Mark Zuckerberg describes as “superintelligence”.
Set to be operational by 2028, the data center is part of a broader industry-wide race among hyperscalers—major cloud service providers such as Meta, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), and Microsoft—to invest heavily in AI infrastructure. In total, these firms are projected to spend more than $360 billion by the end of 2025, largely focused on building and powering expansive data centers to accelerate AI development and deployment.
Read more: Google announces $15 billion investment in new India AI data center, largest outside U.S.
Workforce development and employment opportunities
Meta emphasized several key factors in choosing El Paso for this investment, including the city’s robust electrical grid and availability of a skilled labor force. The construction phase of the data center is expected to create approximately 1,800 jobs on-site at its peak, injecting significant economic activity into the local economy. Once fully operational, the facility will support about 100 full-time jobs, contributing to steady employment growth in the region.
This commitment adds to Meta’s established presence in Texas, where it has already invested over $10 billion and employs more than 2,500 people. The company’s growing footprint supports a diverse array of operations ranging from data centers to regional office functions, highlighting Texas’ strategic importance to Meta’s overall business strategy.
Meta’s investment in El Paso aligns with its high-stakes effort to compete at the forefront of AI innovation. The company has been rapidly enhancing its AI capabilities to improve personalized experiences across its platforms like Instagram and Facebook—delivering smarter recommendations, more interactive chatbots, and personalized video content powered by advanced AI models.
Earlier in 2025, Meta announced the Hyperion data center project in Louisiana, touted as a multi-billion-dollar development that also aims to handle massive AI workloads. Alongside projects like the Prometheus data center in Ohio, these facilities form an integrated network of hyperscale AI infrastructure, positioning Meta to keep pace with other tech giants such as OpenAI and Google in developing next-generation AI systems.
Tax incentives and competitive positioning
Local leaders in El Paso have welcomed Meta’s announcement, emphasizing the potential for the data center to stimulate economic growth and technological investment in the area. Jon Barela, CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, a regional economic development group, praised Meta as “the fastest gazelle in the industry,” highlighting the company’s ability to rapidly capitalize on emerging opportunities and attract follow-on investments from other firms considering the region.
The site selection followed outreach efforts by Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office, offering a package of tax incentives and supportive measures to appeal to Meta and position Texas as a competitive hub for AI infrastructure development.
