Meta builds out data centers to support AI at scale

Meta is expanding its data center network as a core part of its AI strategy, with infrastructure chief Santosh Janardhan describing owned capacity as essential to delivering AI features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company is framing data centers as a competitive moat, giving it more control over computing resources, deployment speed, and system design as AI workloads grow.

The strategy emphasizes vertical integration, including infrastructure optimized for chip design, cooling systems, GPU deployment, AI training, and inference. Meta says custom infrastructure has helped it train and deploy Llama models more efficiently than rivals that depend on shared cloud resources, while also supporting the heat and processing demands that come with running thousands of GPUs simultaneously.

Meta is also using data center placement to improve geographic distribution and reduce latency for AI-powered features used by billions of users. The investment reflects a long-term bet that companies with dedicated, purpose-built infrastructure will be better positioned as models become larger and external cloud capacity remains constrained.