Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has stated the social media large will spend lots of of billions of {dollars} on constructing large AI information centres within the US.
The primary multi-gigawatt information centre, referred to as Prometheus, is predicted to return on-line in 2026, Zuckerberg stated.
He stated one of many websites would cowl an space almost the dimensions of Manhattan (59.1 sq km/22.8 sq miles).
Meta has invested closely in efforts to develop what it referred to as “superintelligence” – expertise that it stated might out-think the neatest people.
The corporate, which has made most of its cash from internet marketing, generated greater than $160bn in income in 2024.
In a publish on his social media platform, Threads, Zuckerberg stated Meta was constructing a number of multi-gigawatt clusters, and that one cluster, referred to as Hyperion, might scale as much as 5 gigawatts over a number of years.
“We’re constructing a number of extra titan clusters as nicely. Simply considered one of these covers a big a part of the footprint of Manhattan,” he added.
Prometheus might be in-built New Albany, Ohio, whereas Hyperion might be in-built Louisiana and is predicted to be absolutely on-line by 2030, Zuckerberg stated.
He stated Meta would “make investments lots of of billions of {dollars}… to construct superintelligence” and that the centres had been given “names befitting their scale and affect”.
Karl Freund, principal analyst at Cambrian AI Analysis, instructed the BBC, “clearly, Zuckerberg intends to spend his strategy to the highest of the AI heap”.
“The expertise he’s hiring could have entry to a number of the greatest AI {Hardware} on the earth,” Freund added.
Meta shares had been buying and selling 1% increased following the announcement, Reuters information company reported. The inventory has risen greater than 20% to date this 12 months.
There are at the least 10,000 information centres world wide internet hosting the cloud – distant servers that retailer digital data – with most of them situated within the US, adopted by the UK and Germany.
AI-driven information centres are extraordinarily vitality and water intensive. One examine estimates that these centres might devour 1.7 trillion gallons of water globally by 2027. A single AI question – for instance, a request to ChatGPT – can use about as much water as a small bottle you’d buy from the corner shop.
