Meta announces $10 billion data center campus launching in 2028, continuing aggressive multi-year infrastructure expansion despite recent investor scrutiny of AI capex.

Meta is building data centers with unprecedented scale and urgency. The company is investing $10 billion in an AI data center campus in El Paso, Texas, with operations targeted for 2028 at a capacity of 1 gigawatt. This represents a dramatic escalation from the project's original $1.5 billion commitment—a sixfold increase in budget.

El Paso is one of three massive data center campuses Meta is developing across the United States. In Richland Parish, Louisiana, Meta announced a $10 billion AI-optimized facility in December 2024. The campus spans 4 million square feet on a 2,250-acre site, making it the company's largest to date. A third project in Lebanon, Indiana, with a price tag exceeding $10 billion broke ground in February 2026. This facility features 13 buildings, with 10 dedicated as data centers, and operations are expected by late 2027 or early 2028.

Across just these three locations, Meta is committing over $30 billion. The company's total capital expenditure for 2026 could reach $135 billion.

Notably, Meta has not linked any of these data center projects to blockchain, cryptocurrency, or decentralized computing. The company that previously attempted to launch its own digital currency, Libra (later renamed Diem), appears to have shifted decisively toward foundational AI infrastructure.

The El Paso facility alone will deliver 1 gigawatt of capacity—enough to power approximately 750,000 homes. As these campuses come online across the United States, they will intensify ongoing debates around energy consumption, grid capacity, and sustainable computing, challenges that have long surrounded Bitcoin mining.