Facebook parent Meta is preparing to invest $800 million in a data center project in Central Texas.
The company said today it plans to build a 900,000-square-foot data center in Temple, about an hour north of Austin, as the company expands its data center footprint globally. The facilities house computer systems that power the parent company’s apps and services, such as Oculus and WhatsApp.
Meta’s new facility will be on 393 acres off NW H.K. Dodgen Loop and Industrial Boulevard in the northwestern corner of Temple, which is about two hours south of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The project represents a major capital investment for the city, which had a population of 82,073 in 2020, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. Meta will need about 1,250 workers to build it, starting this spring, and aims to create 100 direct jobs once the facility is up and running.
It marks the second data center for Meta in Texas after the company opened a Fort Worth development in 2017, according to the company’s website. Other new projects are underway in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kuna, Idaho. Led by large cloud and tech company expansions, demand for data centers has skyrocketed in recent years and led to another record in 2021 for the sector, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle report this week.
Meta has run into roadblocks with other data center projects. The company said this week that it paused plans to build a similar facility in the Netherlands amid opposition from the government, Bloomberg reported. A zoning plan was previously approved by a former local council, though Bloomberg reported that the Dutch Senate voted to reconsider that plan last week.
Meta isn’t the only company betting big on data centers in Central Texas. In Round Rock, Seattle-based Sabey Data Centers is planning a 300,000-square-foot facility, plus Las Vegas-based Switch is building a 1.5 million-square-foot data center on the campus of Dell Technologies Inc.
The Temple project also comes on the heels of Meta’s lease of an entire tower in downtown Austin. It rented 589,000 square feet across 33 floors in the Sixth and Guadalupe building under construction at 400 West Sixth Street.