Key Highlights
- Meta increased its El Paso, Texas AI infrastructure investment from $1.5 billion to $10 billion — representing a nearly sevenfold expansion
- The data center is designed to achieve 1 gigawatt of capacity with an expected completion date of 2028
- The company announced hundreds of job cuts across various departments on Wednesday
- Meta shares declined 8% Thursday following two court decisions holding the company liable for youth user harm
- The company’s 2025 capital spending forecast reaches as high as $135 billion
Meta launched construction on its El Paso data center facility in October 2024 with an initial investment of $1.5 billion. The budget has now skyrocketed to $10 billion. The updated investment amount was disclosed by Gary Demasi, Meta’s VP of data center development, during his presentation at the annual Borderplex Alliance summit held in El Paso.
The installation occupies a 1.2 million square foot location and aims to deliver 1 gigawatt of power capacity when it becomes operational in 2028. This will mark Meta’s third Texas data center facility and joins approximately 30 worldwide, with 26 located across the United States.
According to Meta, the construction phase will employ over 4,000 workers during peak periods and generate 300 full-time positions once the facility goes live.
The tech giant also revealed it has secured contracts for projects that will deliver over 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy to Texas’s electrical grid. Addressing water consumption concerns that have accompanied AI data center development nationwide, Meta announced it is implementing eight water restoration initiatives throughout Texas.
Among these initiatives is a collaboration with nonprofit organization DigDeep, which will provide clean running water access to more than 100 households for the first time. The El Paso facility will employ a closed-loop liquid cooling technology that recycles water, with Meta estimating total water consumption will be equivalent to a standard regional golf course.
Legal Verdicts Drive Share Price Decline
Thursday’s 8% decline in META shares stemmed from two distinct court decisions finding the company responsible for harm inflicted on younger users. These verdicts sparked investor anxiety regarding possible modifications to the design strategies underpinning Meta’s advertising revenue model.
The stock has now fallen 17% year-to-date. Unlike competitors such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, Meta lacks a cloud infrastructure division to balance its substantial AI expenditures — a reality that has intensified investor scrutiny.
Meta announced in January that its capital expenditure budget for 2025 could reach $135 billion, positioning it among the largest investors in the ongoing AI infrastructure expansion. Collectively, Big Tech companies are forecast to invest more than $630 billion in AI infrastructure throughout this year.
Workforce Reductions Accompany Infrastructure Expansion
As the data center investment escalates, Meta is simultaneously reducing its workforce. The company acknowledged hundreds of job eliminations on Wednesday spanning Facebook, global operations, recruiting, sales, and its virtual reality operations. A previous Reuters report suggested layoffs might impact 20% or more of total staff.
On the hardware front, Meta finalized substantial chip procurement agreements with Nvidia and AMD in February and this week became the inaugural confirmed buyer of Arm’s latest data center processor. The company additionally unveiled four new iterations of its proprietary MTIA AI accelerator chips.
Meta’s El Paso construction site was last documented in March 2026, five months following the groundbreaking ceremony.
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