Meta is launching construction on a new hyperscale data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana, positioning the 1-gigawatt site as a cornerstone of its growing compute footprint for both core products and next-generation AI workloads. The company said the project represents an investment of more than $10 billion in data center infrastructure and the surrounding community, making it one of Meta’s largest infrastructure commitments to date.
The Lebanon development will be Meta’s second data center in Indiana and is being built to deliver 1 GW of capacity upon completion. Meta framed gigawatt-scale campuses as increasingly critical as compute demand rises, saying facilities at this scale offer higher bandwidth, lower latency, and improved reliability while providing flexibility to support both its existing business and its AI ambitions.
Beyond the campus buildout, Meta outlined a multi-pronged community investment package aimed at Boone County and Lebanon. At peak construction, the project is expected to support more than 4,000 construction jobs, and once complete, roughly 300 operational jobs. Meta also said it is launching a Boone County-wide workforce development initiative through the Boone County Career Collaborative to support career exploration and work-based learning for students across three school districts. The initiative is designed to connect schools with local employers and provide more consistent exposure to new skills and career paths.
Meta said it plans to fund energy affordability and utility assistance programs alongside significant public infrastructure spending to support the project. The company said it pays the full cost of energy used by its data centers and works with utilities years in advance to plan for demand so residents are not adversely affected. To support families facing higher bills, Meta said it will provide $1 million per year for 20 years to the Boone REMC Community Fund to deliver direct energy-bill assistance and will also fund emergency water-utility assistance through The Caring Center.
Meta added that it pays the full cost of water and wastewater service required to support its data centers. Over the course of the Lebanon project, the company said it will invest more than $120 million toward critical water infrastructure in the city, alongside other public infrastructure improvements, including roads, transmission lines, and utility upgrades. Meta said it will expand its annual Community Action Grants program into Boone County in the coming months to provide direct funding to schools, nonprofits and community organizations in data center communities.
On sustainability, Meta said it will match 100% of the new data center’s energy use with clean energy and target LEED Gold certification once operational. The company said the site will use a water-efficient, closed-loop, liquid-cooled system designed to recirculate the same water and use no water for most of the year. Meta also said it aims to restore 100% of the water it consumes in Lebanon to local watersheds, including a partnership with Arable to provide irrigation technology to independent farmers in Indiana’s Upper Wabash River Basin. Meta said that the initiative is expected to restore 200 million gallons of water per year for ten years while reducing costs for farmers, and that it is also revitalizing a section of Deer Creek to improve the ecological health of the wetland corridor by expanding vegetation and supporting habitat for pollinators.
KEY QUOTES
“This facility represents an investment of over $10 billion in data center infrastructure and the surrounding community, one of our largest infrastructure investments to date.”
“As AI advances and compute demands continue to grow, gigawatt sites like this one will be critical to advancing the technology that supports our core business as well as our AI ambitions.”
Meta (company statement)
“At Meta, we’re building the infrastructure that will power the next generation of AI technology, and Lebanon is now at the heart of that effort. This is one of our largest investments to date, and it marks an important milestone in our AI ambitions.”
Rachel Peterson, Vice President of Data Centers, Meta
“Indiana has the business-first environment and the central location needed to support the global infrastructure of tomorrow’s economy.”
Mike Braun, Governor of Indiana
