Meta is significantly expanding its artificial intelligence infrastructure with plans to build a massive new data centre in Canada, underscoring the growing energy demands of the AI industry. The company has announced a C$13 billion (approximately $9.17 billion) investment in a new facility in Alberta that is expected to consume as much electricity as nearly 800,000 homes.
According to Reuters, the project will be Meta's first data centre in Canada and its 33rd worldwide. The facility will be constructed in Sturgeon County with an initial capacity of one gigawatt, which can later be expanded to 1.8 gigawatts as demand for AI computing continues to increase.
The investment forms part of Meta's broader strategy to rapidly expand its AI computing infrastructure. Like several other technology companies, Meta is investing billions of dollars in data centres capable of training and running increasingly advanced artificial intelligence models.
AI boom driving demand for energy and water
Meta selected Alberta for the project due to a combination of factors, including abundant natural gas resources, comparatively lower energy costs and a cooler climate that reduces the expense of cooling large-scale server facilities. The provincial government has also been actively encouraging investments from global technology companies, with officials confirming that several additional data centre proposals are currently under consideration.
"This is the first of its kind, the first of its size, the first of its scale, but it won't be the last," Alberta Technology Minister Nate Glubish said while announcing the project.
One of the most notable aspects of the development is its enormous electricity requirement. Meta said the facility will use roughly the same amount of power as 800,000 households. To support the project, the company plans to fund additional power generation and electricity grid upgrades rather than relying solely on existing infrastructure.
As part of the project, Meta has partnered with Alberta-based Pembina Pipeline, which is developing a natural gas-fired power plant in Sturgeon County. The facility is expected to become operational later this decade and will supply electricity to the data centre under a long-term agreement. Until then, Capital Power will provide 250 megawatts of electricity through its existing natural gas generation assets.
Meta said it intends to offset the data centre's electricity consumption by investing in clean and renewable energy projects. The company also stated that the facility will use a closed-loop liquid cooling system that recycles cooling liquid, helping reduce overall water consumption. According to Meta, the site's total water usage will be lower than that of a typical golf course.
Despite these commitments, environmental organisations have expressed concerns about the environmental impact of rapidly expanding AI infrastructure, arguing that such projects could place increasing pressure on energy and water resources.
"We need a moratorium on mega-data centers until we have legislated environmental and human rights protections on AI," said Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada.
The criticism comes as major technology companies face growing scrutiny over the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence.
Separately, Amazon recently disclosed that its global data centre operations withdrew approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water during 2025.
The company said its direct water consumption declined by 2 per cent compared with the previous year despite continued expansion of its data centre network. Amazon also reported that its facilities used an average of 0.12 litres of water for every kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed, a figure it says is below the industry average.
To reduce reliance on drinking water supplies, Amazon noted that some of its data centres already use treated wastewater instead of freshwater. It also said that its facilities rely on outside air for cooling around 90 per cent of the time, switching to water-based cooling systems only during periods of higher temperatures.
