Meta breaks ground on its first Canadian data center in Alberta, aiming for a 1GW, AI-optimized build

Meta has started construction on what it says will be its first data center in Canada, breaking ground on a large AI-optimized facility in Sturgeon County, Alberta. The company described the project as a 1-gigawatt-scale campus designed to support its artificial intelligence workloads, and positioned it as part of the infrastructure behind the online services that connect users, help them discover content, and support businesses.

In its announcement posted July 8, Meta said the completed Sturgeon County site represents an investment of more than CAD $13 billion. It expects roughly 3,000 construction workers to be on site at peak, and said the data center will support more than 300 operational jobs once it is up and running.

Meta also put a specific figure on the local economic footprint beyond the building itself. It said it is investing approximately CAD $60 million in infrastructure improvements in the region, including roads and water infrastructure, and will launch its annual Data Center Community Action Grants in Alberta to fund local nonprofits.

A central theme of Meta’s message was power planning. The company said it pays the full costs of the electricity used by its data centers so consumers are not negatively affected, and it worked with entities including Greenlight Limited Partnership, Altalink, Capitol Power, and the Alberta Electric System Operator to plan for and secure its energy needs years in advance.

In addition to procurement and grid coordination, Meta said that in Alberta it is fully funding new generation and grid infrastructure to support the data center. The company added that those improvements are intended to improve reliability across the broader Alberta grid and benefit other consumers, not just Meta’s load.

On clean energy, Meta said the Sturgeon facility’s electricity use will be matched with 100% clean and renewable energy, consistent with what it describes as its approach for other data centers. It did not provide, in the announcement, details on the specific procurement mechanisms for the matching or the timing of the clean-energy supply relative to construction milestones.

Water use is also a declared priority. Meta said it aims to be “water positive” in 2030, meaning it will restore more water than it consumes globally where it owns operations. For this site, it said it plans to use a water-efficient, closed-loop liquid-cooled system with dry cooling, which it described as resulting in no operational water use in the cooling system.

Under that design, Meta said water use at the site would be limited to domestic uses, fire protection safety, and equipment maintenance. The company also said it pays the full costs of water and wastewater service needed to support the data center so consumers are not negatively impacted, and that it discloses water withdrawal and energy use for its facilities annually at its sustainability reporting site.

Meta did not, in the July 8 release, specify a completion date or commissioning timeline for the 1GW project, nor did it break out the phase-by-phase construction schedule. As with most large AI-infrastructure builds, the near-term watchpoints will include permitting, construction sequencing, and when the company’s stated energy and water plans translate into operational metrics.

For local stakeholders, the company’s planned grants and infrastructure investments are likely to remain the most concrete near-term indicates of how the project is expected to interact with the surrounding community. For the wider market, the move underscores how major platforms are scaling physical compute capacity for AI workloads, while attempting to address regional constraints around power and water supply.