Meta plans $10B investment for first data center in Canada

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.

Initial discussions reportedly started in 2025, meaning this deal was in the works for over a year before the formal announcement. The facility will use closed-loop liquid cooling, a technology that recirculates coolant rather than evaporating water.

Meta has also pledged to offset its electricity consumption with renewable energy initiatives. Alberta’s grid carries a higher emissions intensity than the Canadian national average, which makes any “net zero” claims a heavier lift here than they would be in, say, Quebec’s hydro-dominated system.

The AI infrastructure arms race

Meta has been on a data center building spree across the US, with major facilities planned or under construction in Louisiana, Indiana, and Texas.

The environmental tension

Greenpeace Canada has raised concerns about the ecological impact of building a nearly 1 GW natural gas plant specifically to power AI servers. Alberta’s grid already runs dirtier than the national average, and adding a dedicated gas plant doesn’t exactly bend that curve in the right direction.

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