Meta plans nearly $1 billion data center project in Wisconsin: Report

Both Meta and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters [File]
| Photo Credit: AP

Meta Platforms is planning on spending nearly $1 billion on setting up a data centre project in central Wisconsin as part of its investment in artificial intelligence technology, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Wisconsin in February reached an agreement with an unnamed company using an alias to develop a data centre in the state with an expected multiyear investment of $837 million, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.

The company behind the project is Meta, the report said.

Both Meta and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.

Investment in data centres has seen an uptick as technology giants have ramped up capex to meet the computing power needed to run generative AI applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

Meta has earmarked as much as $65 billion this year to expand its AI infrastructure amid investor pressure on big tech firms to show returns on their investments.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs could hamstring Big Tech’s billion-dollar efforts to build AI infrastructure in the country, likely undermining a key goal of the administration, analysts said on Thursday.