Meta Plans Hundreds-Billion-Dollar AI Data Centers Across US

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in building massive AI data centers to support the company’s push toward superintelligence. The first of these data centers, named Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026 and will operate at the gigawatt scale, with other clusters like Hyperion planned to scale up to 5 gigawatts, comparable in size to a significant part of Manhattan. These data centers represent an unprecedented investment in AI infrastructure, aiming to overcome Meta’s recent setbacks in generative AI, including losing ground to competitors such as DeepSeek and OpenAI. To accelerate progress, Meta has reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs and aggressively recruited top AI talent, including appointing Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI, as Chief AI Officer. Despite concerns over the massive expenditure, Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta’s strong advertising business provides sufficient capital to fund these initiatives, which are expected to drive new revenue streams through AI-powered applications and augmented reality products. The rapid construction of these facilities, even in temporary tent setups, highlights Meta’s urgency to catch up and compete in the evolving AI landscape alongside rivals like OpenAI, Nvidia, and Oracle.