Meta snags 1,000 acres in El Paso for $8.5M to build a 1 GW AI data center

Meta picked up roughly 1,039 acres of land in Northeast El Paso, Texas, for approximately $8.5 million. That’s about $8,156 per acre. The purpose: building a massive data center campus designed to scale up to 1 gigawatt of capacity, fueled by dedicated natural gas power generation. The project started with a $1.5 billion budget when it was first disclosed in 2024. That number has since ballooned past $10 billion in total projected investment. What Meta is actually building The El Paso campus is designed around a 1 GW scalable infrastructure. Meta has proposed a dedicated 366 MW natural gas power plant to supply the facility, with cost estimates ranging from $473 million to $551.8 million just for the energy component. Groundbreaking is slated for October 2025, with active construction kicking off in 2026. During the build-out phase, the project is expected to create around 1,800 construction jobs. Once operational, the campus will support approximately 100 permanent positions. The choice of El Paso is strategic for several reasons. Texas offers a deregulated energy market and relatively cheap land, as the $8.5 million price tag demonstrates. This site marks Meta’s third Texas prese...