Meta Bets Big on AI: Zuckerberg Announces Manhattan-Sized Data Centers

Meta-CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces gigantic investments in AI infrastructure. For the construction of several huge data centers, the group plans to spend hundreds of billions. The first center called Prometheus is expected to go into operation in 2026.

Zuckerberg’s AI offensive begins

Mark Zuckerberg gives a gait in the race for artificial intelligence. The META CEO announced on Monday that its company will invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” in building several gigantic AI data centers. These systems are intended to form the basis for the development of “superintelligence” – i.e. AI systems that are supposed to exceed people in many tasks.

The first of these mega data centers are called Prometheus and is expected to go into operation in New Albany, Ohio in 2026. Another center named Hyperion is built in Louisiana and could be expanded to a capacity of up to five gigawatts over the coming years. For comparison: This performance would be sufficient to supply around 900,000 households with electricity.

Manhattan-large data centers planned

The dimensions of the planned systems are impressive. As Zuckerberg announced in his Facebook post, he speaks of “titanium clusters”, the dimensions of which are gigantic: “One of these centers alone covers a significant part of the Manhattan area.” The social media giant had already lured numerous top-class AI experts with millions of salaries in the past few months and partially wandered off successfully. In June, Meta founded the “Meta Superintelligence Labs”, a specialized department for the development of advanced AI systems. This is now to be equipped with the largest computing power per researcher across the industry.

Capture after disappointing Llama 4

The background of the offensive is apparently Zuckerberg’s dissatisfaction with metas previous AI progress. The more than reserved feedback on the Llama 4 model published in April is said to have frustrated the CEO. The voice model could not achieve the hoped -for breakthroughs and remained behind the expectations.

With new investments, Meta now wants to catch up with competitors such as Openaai and Google or overtake them. However, the gigantic data centers will not only devour enormous financial resources, but also have significant environmental impacts. AI calculating centers are extremely energy and water-intensive. It is estimated that these systems could consume around 1.7 trillion water worldwide by 2027.

Meta sees itself prepared

Despite the enormous costs, Zuckerberg is confident that Meta can afford these investments. “We have the capital from our business to do that,” he said. Meta actually generated sales of around $ 165 billion last year, mainly through online advertising.