Meta Breaks Ground on First Oklahoma Data Center, Its 28th in the U.S., as Part of $600 Billion Infrastructure Commitment Meta has broken ground on a new data center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, marking the company's 28th facility in the United States and its 32nd globally. The project is the first Meta data center to be built in the state and represents another expansion of the company's artificial intelligence processing capacity as it pushes forward with what it has described as a Superintelligence initiative.

A Billion-Dollar Investment in Tulsa

Meta has described the Tulsa facility as 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 the facility is operational, it is expected to support approximately 100 permanent jobs. Beyond the data center itself, Meta has pledged more than $25 million in local infrastructure improvements, covering roads and water infrastructure in the surrounding area. The Tulsa project is one piece of a far larger financial commitment Meta has made to developing U.S. infrastructure.

The company has announced a $600 billion commitment to U.S. infrastructure projects over the next three years, with the expansion of AI processing capacity sitting at the center of that plan.

Workforce Development Partnership With Tulsa Community College

As part of its arrival in Oklahoma, Meta is partnering with Tulsa Community College to support a new cross-institutional workforce development program and 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. The fields covered under the program include cooling simulation, fiber optics, and structured cabling, as well as AI and data analytics programming.

The partnership reflects a broader pattern Meta has described of investing in local communities where it builds data centers, with the company framing these contributions as a way to play a positive role in regional economies.

AI Expansion and the Regulatory Environment

Meta's accelerating pace of data center construction is directly tied to its push to expand AI capabilities as quickly as possible. The company is building out its data infrastructure to power the next stage of its AI development, and it has been working to maximize what it can accomplish while the current administration remains in office. The White House published an AI action plan in July 2025 that outlined government support for U.S. businesses with the goal of ensuring the nation's global dominance in artificial intelligence.

The plan also included specific measures aimed at removing what it characterized as red tape and onerous regulation. That regulatory environment has been cited as a factor in accelerating Meta's AI development push. The company has also committed to the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which is designed to protect U.S. residents from negative impacts related to large-scale infrastructure developments.

Meta is aware, according to reporting on the company's strategy, that the current more permissive regulatory approach may not extend into the next administration. That awareness has contributed to the urgency with which the company is working to get as many data centers up and running as possible within the current three-year window.

Water, Electricity, and Community Impact Commitments

Alongside its financial investments in local infrastructure, Meta has committed to ensuring water and electricity support for the regions where it is building. The company has framed these commitments as part of its effort to manage the footprint of its facilities and limit negative effects on surrounding communities.

The question of how data centers ultimately affect the regions where they are built remains an open one. Reporting from The Atlantic has documented cases in which data centers have had major negative effects on local communities. Meta has pledged to limit such detrimental impacts in Tulsa and elsewhere, but the outcomes of those pledges have yet to be demonstrated in the case of this new facility.

Meta's Growing Infrastructure Footprint

The scale of Meta's data center network reflects how central AI infrastructure has become to the company's operations and long-term strategy.

With 28 facilities now in or under development in the United States and 32 globally, Meta has evolved into a major player in physical computing infrastructure alongside its identity as a social media company. The Tulsa facility adds Oklahoma to the map of states where Meta has a direct operational presence, and the company's investment commitments there — spanning construction employment, permanent jobs, local infrastructure spending, and workforce education — represent one of the more detailed community engagement packages the company has announced alongside a data center groundbreaking.