Meta Just Dropped $10 Billion on a Single Data Center While Laying Off Thousands of Workers

Meta just pulled one of the wildest corporate moves of the year. On the same day the company was reportedly planning massive layoffs that could affect 20% or more of its workforce, it announced it is pumping $10 billion into a single AI data center in El Paso, Texas.

To put that in perspective, Meta originally committed $1.5 billion to this facility back in October. In just a few months, they increased that by more than six times. The data center is designed to hit 1 gigawatt of capacity, which is an absurd amount of power, roughly enough to run a small city.

The facility will create about 300 permanent jobs once it is up and running, with over 3,000 construction workers on site during peak building. Meta says it is also investing in over 5,000 megawatts of clean energy for Texas and working with nonprofits to bring fresh water to the area.

But here is the thing that has people talking: while Meta is writing these enormous checks for AI infrastructure, it just laid off a few hundred people across multiple teams. And the bigger cuts could still be coming.

On top of all that, Meta got hit with two court verdicts holding it liable for harm to young users, which sent its stock dropping. The company is essentially betting its entire future on AI while the rest of the business faces serious headwinds. As reported by Reuters.

Source: Reuters