Meta is putting somewhere between $10 billion and $13 billion into building a massive, AI-optimized data center in Sturgeon County, Alberta. It’s the company’s first facility in Canada and its 33rd worldwide.
The 1-gigawatt campus, announced on July 8 alongside Alberta officials, won’t just consume power. It will essentially generate its own, thanks to a 932 MW natural gas-fired power plant being built in partnership with Pembina Pipeline and Kineticor. Target operational date: late 2030.
Why Alberta, and why now
Alberta has been aggressively courting Big Tech investment under Premier Danielle Smith, deploying policies like “bring your own power” that let companies sidestep grid constraints by building dedicated energy infrastructure. Cold climate helps too, since keeping servers cool is one of the biggest cost drivers in data center operations.
The province has set an ambitious target of attracting over $100 billion in private investment by 2030. Meta’s project represents a meaningful chunk of that goal.
