Meta Boosts El Paso AI Data Centre from $1.5 Billion to $10 Billion Overnight — 1 Gigawatt, 4,000 Construction Jobs

Meta Platforms announced on March 26, 2026 at the Borderplex Alliance’s Global Border Summit in El Paso, Texas, that it is increasing its investment in its El Paso artificial intelligence data centre by more than sixfold — from an initial commitment of $1.5 billion made when the facility broke ground in October 2025, to a total investment of $10 billion. The expanded facility is planned to reach 1 gigawatt of computing capacity, making it one of the largest single AI data centre sites in the world when it opens in 2028. The announcement was reported by Reuters, CNBC, and Bloomberg citing Meta’s official statement. The expansion is expected to create more than 300 permanent jobs once the facility is operational, with approximately 4,000 construction workers on site at peak construction. Meta has committed an additional $500,000 grant to support workforce development programmes in El Paso public schools. The company also confirmed it has projects under contract adding more than 5,000 megawatts of clean energy to the Texas grid and is working with nonprofits to address water sustainability concerns in the region. The El Paso facility is Meta’s 29th data centre globally and its third in Texas. The announcement came the same day Meta’s stock fell approximately 8% after two court rulings held the company liable for harm to young users — a reminder that even the most aggressive AI infrastructure expansion cannot insulate a company from legal and regulatory risk. Big Tech companies collectively are projected to invest $630 billion to $700 billion in AI data centre infrastructure in 2026, a 62% jump from 2025. Meta’s original capital expenditure guidance for 2026 was $60 to $65 billion — the El Paso expansion is consistent with the upper end of that range. The social media giant has also separately committed to being the first customer for Arm’s new data centre processor and signed major chip deals with NVIDIA and AMD in February 2026.