Published On 9/7/2026
Meta announced an investment exceeding $9 billion to build its first data center in Canada, in a move that reflects the acceleration of its investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, as part of a fierce race with major technology companies to develop their computing capabilities.
Meta Vice President responsible for data center development, Gary DeMasi, said that the new facility will be located in the western Canadian province of Alberta, and will be “our first in Canada and the largest outside the United States.”
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He added that the center will extend over an area of approximately 270,000 square meters, with investments exceeding 13 billion Canadian dollars (9 billion US dollars), noting that the announcement came in Calgary on the sidelines of the annual rodeo festival.
For her part, Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith described the project as “one of the largest private sector investments in the history of Canada,” considering that it strengthens the province’s position as a major center for technological investments.
The move comes as part of Meta’s plan to accelerate its investments in artificial intelligence, after the company that owns the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp applications intensified its spending to catch up with competitors such as Google, Open AI, and Anthropic.
The company plans to pump investments amounting to $145 billion during the year 2026, nearly double its spending last year, with the bulk of it directed toward establishing and expanding the data centers necessary to run generative artificial intelligence models.
The world is witnessing a boom in the construction of data centers with a significant increase in demand for computing capabilities. However, these projects are facing increasing criticism, especially in the United States, due to their large consumption of electricity and water, in addition to the noise they produce and the limited job opportunities they provide compared to the volume of investments in them.
