Meta has announced plans to invest C$13 billion (about $9.17 billion) in the construction of its first data centre in Canada, marking a significant expansion of the company’s global artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The technology giant said the one-gigawatt facility, which can be expanded to 1.8 gigawatts, will be built in Sturgeon County, Alberta. The project will become Meta’s 33rd data centre globally and its first in Canada.
The announcement was made in Calgary by Meta executives alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and other provincial officials, who have been working to attract major technology investments as part of efforts to diversify the province’s economy beyond oil and gas.
Meta has ramped up spending on AI infrastructure in recent months, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand computing capacity to support the growing demand for artificial intelligence technologies.
Alberta’s Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish, described the project as a landmark investment that could attract more large-scale data centres to the province.
“This is the first of its kind, the first of its size, the first of its scale, but it won’t be the last,” Glubish said.
Alberta has become an attractive destination for AI infrastructure because of its abundant natural gas supply, lower energy costs and cold climate, which helps reduce cooling expenses for large computing facilities.
Provincial officials said several other gigawatt-scale data centre proposals are also under development.
Meta disclosed that the new facility will consume roughly the same amount of electricity as 800,000 homes. The company said it will fully finance the electricity generation and grid infrastructure needed to support the project.
Meta’s Vice President for Data Centre Development, Gary Demasi, said the company plans to offset its electricity use through investments in clean and renewable energy projects. He added that the facility will operate with a closed-loop liquid cooling system designed to minimise water consumption, noting that it will use less water than a typical golf course.
To power the facility, Meta has signed a long-term agreement with Alberta-based Pembina Pipeline, which recently approved construction of the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural gas-fired power plant expected to begin operations in late 2030.
Until then, Capital Power will provide 250 megawatts of electricity from its existing natural gas-fired power plants.
Pembina estimates the project will require about 150 million cubic feet of natural gas daily, creating additional demand for natural gas production in Western Canada.
The announcement comes shortly after the Canadian government introduced a national AI strategy encouraging the development of more data centres, highlighting the country’s largely clean electricity grid.
However, Alberta’s electricity system remains more carbon-intensive than most of Canada, with about 60 per cent of its power generated from natural gas.
The project has already sparked criticism from environmental groups, which argue that expanding AI data centres could increase greenhouse gas emissions and put additional pressure on natural resources.
Greenpeace Canada campaigner Keith Stewart called for stricter regulations before more large-scale AI facilities are approved.
“We need a moratorium on mega-data centers until we have legislated environmental and human rights protections on AI,” Stewart said.
