Meta is planting its AI flag in Canada. The company announced Wednesday it will build its first Canadian data center—a massive 1-gigawatt facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta—with a price tag of roughly $9 billion and a construction timeline of two to three years. The site, Meta’s 33rd data center globally, is the latest piece in the company’s aggressive push to scale infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

Alberta’s appeal comes down to two things: energy and regulation. The province has abundant power and a permitting process that industrial developers find welcoming. Sturgeon County, already zoned for heavy use, sits near existing transmission lines and offers room for additional energy upgrades. Meta said it worked with local firms including Greenlight Limited Partnership, Altalink, and the Alberta Electric System Operator to lock in power supply years ahead of the facility’s go-live date. A company spokesperson noted the location checked all the usual boxes: strong grid, access to talent, and a supportive community.

The move comes as Meta races to catch up in the AI arms race. The company is also quietly building a cloud business that could sell spare compute or host AI models for third parties—a sharp pivot from its ad-dependent revenue model. Investors remain wary: Meta has forecast up to $145 billion in capital expenditures this year, yet it trails OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google on model performance, and its stock is down 9% year-to-date. Meanwhile, rivals like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all operate thriving cloud units. Local concerns also linger—a CBC report in June flagged emissions, water use, and noise from large data centers. Meta says the project will support over 3,000 construction workers at peak and includes funding for local nonprofits and infrastructure upgrades.

Source: CNBC