Why Is Meta Expanding Its Data Center Presence Into Canada

Meta is expanding its data center presence into Canada, confirming plans on Wednesday to build its first facility in the country as part of a larger push to keep pace in the AI race.

Why is Meta expanding its data center presence with an Alberta facility

The new site will sit in Alberta and mark the 33rd data center in Meta's global network. At 1 gigawatt of capacity, it ranks among the company's largest projects, carrying a price tag of roughly $9.18 billion. Construction alone is expected to support 3,000 jobs, though once the facility opens, only about 300 people will staff it permanently.

Meta is also putting $42.4 million toward upgrading infrastructure in the surrounding community, a common move when tech companies land large industrial projects in smaller regions.

How the facility handles cooling and water use

Meta says the Alberta site will run on a closed loop, liquid cooling system paired with dry cooling technology, meaning it won't draw water for day to day operations. According to the company, any water used on site will go toward fire safety equipment and basic domestic needs rather than cooling servers.

Spending, investor jitters and Wall Street's doubts

Meta expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion this fiscal year on data centers and related costs. That scale of spending has unsettled some investors: the stock has dropped 16% over the past 12 months and is down 8.6% year to date.

Some of that skepticism traces back to Meta's AI stumbles last year, when its earlier Llama 4 models underdelivered against expectations. Since then, the company has restructured its AI work under a new group called Meta Superintelligence Labs, which released its first model, Muse Spark, in April. On Tuesday, it followed up with a second release, Muse Image.

A possible new revenue stream from spare computing power

Bloomberg reported last week that Meta intends to sell unused computing capacity to outside customers, a move that would put it in more direct competition with cloud giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft, along with newer players like CoreWeave. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has floated this idea in past earnings calls.

Selling excess capacity could give Meta another way to offset its enormous infrastructure spending and offer investors a clearer picture of how the company plans to turn its AI investment into revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are data centers growing?

Data centers are expanding because demand for AI computing power, cloud services and data storage has increased sharply, pushing companies to build larger and more powerful facilities.

What drives data center growth?

Growth is driven by rising use of AI models, cloud computing needs from businesses and consumers, and competition among tech companies to secure enough computing capacity for future products.

Why are so many data centers being built?

Companies are racing to build out infrastructure that can support increasingly complex AI systems, and many are also positioning themselves to sell spare capacity to other businesses that need computing power.