Meta Breaks Ground on 28th U.S. Data Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marking State's First Meta has broken ground on a new data center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the company's 28th facility in the United States and its 32nd globally. The project also marks Meta's first data center in Oklahoma and represents a continued acceleration of the social media giant's artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout.

A Billion-Dollar Investment in Oklahoma

Meta says the completed Tulsa facility will represent an investment of more than $1 billion in the region.

At the peak of construction, the company anticipates more than 1,000 construction workers will be on-site. Once operational, the data center is expected to support approximately 100 permanent jobs. In addition to the facility itself, Meta has committed to investing more than $25 million in local infrastructure improvements, including roads and water infrastructure.

The Tulsa project is designed to support Meta's expanding AI workloads, which the company describes as part of its broader push toward what it calls a Superintelligence development effort. Meta has positioned artificial intelligence as a central pillar of its long-term business strategy, and its data center construction program reflects the scale of that ambition.

Part of a $600 Billion U.S. Infrastructure Commitment

The Tulsa groundbreaking is one piece of Meta's stated $600 billion commitment to developing U.S. infrastructure projects over the next three years.

The company has been moving rapidly to expand its data center footprint across the country, seeking to increase AI processing capacity as quickly as possible. The pace of that expansion is also tied to the current political environment. Meta has been working to maximize construction and operational progress while President Donald Trump remains in office, taking advantage of the administration's stated support for expanding U.S. business interests.

The White House published an AI action plan in July 2025 that outlined the government's goal of ensuring the nation's global dominance in artificial intelligence. That plan also included measures aimed at removing what the administration described as red tape and onerous regulation. Meta has also signed on to the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, an initiative aimed at shielding U.S. residents from negative impacts associated with large-scale data center developments.

Workforce Development and Community Partnerships

Beyond the construction investment, Meta is partnering with Tulsa Community College to establish a cross-institutional workforce development program and a learning lab focused on digital infrastructure careers.

The company said it anticipates the partnership will create a pipeline of more than 200 graduates annually in technical trades, including cooling simulation, fiber optics, and structured cabling, as well as programs in AI and data analytics. The workforce initiative reflects a broader effort by Meta to frame its data center expansion as a source of regional economic benefit. The company has also committed to supporting local community projects in the areas where it builds, along with pledges to provide adequate water and electricity resources for host regions.

Scrutiny Over Local Impact

Despite Meta's pledges to limit negative effects on host communities, questions remain about the real-world impact of large-scale data centers on the areas surrounding them.

Reporting from The Atlantic has highlighted cases in which data centers have ended up having major negative effects on local communities, a dynamic that has fueled public debate around the rapid proliferation of these facilities across the country. Meta's Tulsa commitments, including the infrastructure investment and workforce training programs, appear designed in part to address those concerns proactively. Whether those measures will prove sufficient to offset any negative local effects remains an open question as construction moves forward.

Meta's Growing Data Center Footprint

The Tulsa project underscores how significantly Meta's identity has shifted in recent years.

Once primarily known as a social media company operating platforms including Facebook and Instagram, Meta has increasingly taken on the characteristics of a large-scale infrastructure developer. Its data center network now spans 32 locations worldwide, with the U.S. accounting for 28 of those sites following the Tulsa groundbreaking. The company's aggressive construction timeline is driven by the demands of running and expanding its AI systems, which require enormous amounts of computing power.

Meta's leadership has signaled that building out that capacity as rapidly as possible is a strategic priority, and the pace of groundbreakings in recent years reflects that urgency. The Tulsa facility joins a growing list of data center projects Meta has announced and initiated across the country as it races to position itself at the forefront of the artificial intelligence era.