Meta has officially broken ground on its first Canadian data center, a massive 1-gigawatt facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta, representing an investment of more than USD 9.18 billion and marking the company's 33rd data center in its global fleet.

A Facility Built for AI Workloads

The Sturgeon County data center is being designed and optimized specifically for artificial intelligence workloads, according to Meta. The company says the facility will help power the technologies used by billions of people worldwide to connect, find communities, grow businesses, and use Meta's wearable devices. At 1 gigawatt of capacity, the site represents one of the largest data center investments Meta has undertaken in a single location.

The facility's primary function is to support Meta's expanding AI infrastructure requirements, which have driven data center development at scale across the company's global operations. The Sturgeon County site joins Meta's existing fleet and is positioned as a cornerstone of how the company intends to scale its AI capabilities going forward.

Jobs and Economic Impact for Sturgeon County

Meta projects that the construction phase will support approximately 3,000 workers at peak activity, with the completed facility sustaining more than 300 permanent operational jobs. The company has not specified a timeline for completion of construction or when the data center is expected to come fully online.

Beyond direct employment, Meta has committed approximately USD 42.37 million to local infrastructure improvements as part of the project. Those investments are intended to cover improvements to roads and water infrastructure that will benefit the surrounding community.

Meta also plans to launch its Data Center Community Action Grants program in the region, which will provide direct funding to local nonprofits. The company already operates this grants program in other communities where it has data centers.

Energy Planning and Grid Investment

Meta says it worked closely with several energy partners to plan for the facility's power needs well in advance of the data center coming online. Those partners include Greenlight Limited Partnership, Altalink, Capitol Power, and the Alberta Electric System Operator.

The company states it is fully funding new electricity generation and grid infrastructure in Alberta to support the data center's energy demands. Meta frames this investment not solely as a benefit to its own operations, but as an improvement that will increase reliability across the broader Alberta electricity grid, with potential benefits for all consumers on the network.

As with all of its data centers, Meta says the Sturgeon County facility's electricity use will be matched with 100 percent clean and renewable energy. The company also states it pays the full costs of its data centers' energy use so that consumers are not negatively affected by the additional load placed on the grid.

Water Stewardship and Cooling Design

Meta has outlined a specific approach to water use at the Sturgeon County site that it describes as part of its broader commitment to water stewardship. The company states it aims to be water positive by 2030, meaning it intends to restore more water than it consumes globally across its owned operations.

To that end, the Sturgeon County data center is planned to use a water-efficient closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling. Meta says this design means there will be no operational water use in the cooling system itself. Water use at the site will accordingly be limited to domestic purposes, fire protection safety systems, and equipment maintenance.

Meta says it pays the full costs of water and wastewater services required for its data centers and that it discloses water withdrawal and energy use figures for all of its facilities on an annual basis through its sustainability reporting.

Canada as a New Footprint for Meta Infrastructure

The Sturgeon County facility is notable not only for its scale but for representing Meta's entry into Canada as a data center host country. The company's global data center fleet now extends to 33 locations with this groundbreaking, and Canada joins the list of countries where Meta maintains owned data center infrastructure.

Meta did not disclose in its announcement which specific AI systems or products will be primarily served by the new Canadian facility, nor did it provide a detailed construction schedule or anticipated operational date. The company described itself as looking forward to contributing positively to the Sturgeon County community as the project moves forward.

Power Your Pipeline: Data Center Intelligence Across Canada

How much revenue are you leaving on the table by finding out about data center projects after the competition already has a foot in the door? In an industry where hyperscale campuses and edge deployments are reshaping infrastructure across Canada at a relentless pace, timing is everything, and late intelligence is no intelligence at all.

The Global Project Tracking (GPT) platform by Blackridge Research was built for exactly this environment. Whether you are tracking colocation expansions, liquid-cooled facilities breaking ground in Canada, or AI-driven compute campuses being commissioned across the Midwest, GPT delivers the project-level detail your business development team needs to act first and act confidently.

From early planning signals to ribbon-cutting milestones, the platform covers the full data center project lifecycle across Canada, giving contractors, equipment suppliers, and technology vendors a single source of structured, actionable market intelligence.

• Upcoming Projects

• Tender Notices

• Contract Awards

• Projects Under Construction

• Completed Projects

See how GPT can sharpen your competitive edge in the data center sector. Book a Free Demo with the Blackridge Research team today and explore the full depth of coverage available for the Canadian market.