Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, ETR:FB2A, SWX:FB) is planning a $1.5 billion investment in an AI-focused data center in Texas, part of a broader effort to develop extensive AI infrastructure across the US, the company announced on Wednesday.
The Texas facility is one of several locations under consideration, including Louisiana and Wyoming, with potential total investments reaching up to $200 billion.
The El Paso, Texas site is notable for leveraging a deregulated energy market to secure approximately 1,800 MW of renewable energy, highlighting Meta’s focus on sustainable energy use and grid modernization.
The project aligns with the company’s larger strategy of deploying large-scale data center campuses dedicated to artificial intelligence computing.
It supports the company’s goal of scaling AI compute capacity in 2025 and beyond.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has outlined plans to invest $60 billion to $65 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025, concentrating on data centers and servers.
The company aims to bring 1 gigawatt of compute online this year and deploy over 1.3 million GPUs by the end of 2025.
Separately, it was also announced on Wednesday that Meta has partnered with UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) to develop specialized small language models (SLMs) optimized for on-device and edge AI computing, allowing complex tasks to be performed directly on devices such as smartphones.
The collaboration involves optimizing AI frameworks like PyTorch and ExecuTorch and tailoring Meta’s Llama large language models (LLMs) to run efficiently on Arm CPUs.
“AI’s next era will be defined by delivering efficiency at scale,” Arm CEO Rene Haas said in a statement. “Partnering with Meta, we’re uniting Arm’s performance-per-watt leadership with Meta’s AI innovation to bring smarter, more efficient intelligence everywhere — from milliwatts to megawatts.”
Shares of Meta added 0.4% at about $711 following the updates, while Arm’s US-listed shares gained 0.2% at $168.