Facebook announced that it has chosen Fort Worth, Texas as the home for its next data center. It will be the fifth data center the social networking company has built, after facilities in Altoona, Iowa; Prineville, Oregon; Forest City, North Carolina; and Lulea, Sweden. Facebook says that the Fort Worth center will help support Facebook’s global infrastructure, the growing number of applications built on the Facebook platform, and its Internet.org initiative.
Just like the other data centers, the Fort Worth location will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy, thanks to the 200 MW of new wind energy that Facebook is bringing to the Texas energy grid.
The addition of another data center probably shouldn’t be surprising, as Facebook needs to invest in new infrastructure to support its rapid growth and its ambition to be the way people communicate and share around the world. As it promotes its Internet.org initiative, for example, there need to be systems in place to help those in underserved areas access the Internet.
Rumors about the data center came about in May, and it’s believed that the total investment in the facility will be around $1 billion, according to one property tax document on file with the state of Texas.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
If you want to know more about the data center, there’s a Facebook page you can follow.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More