JULY 15 – Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has stated the social media large will spend a whole lot of billions of {dollars} on constructing large AI information centres within the US.
The first multi-gigawatt information centre, referred to as Prometheus, is anticipated to come back on-line in 2026, Zuckerberg stated.
He stated one of many websites would cowl an space practically the scale of Manhattan (59.1 sq km/22.8 sq miles).
Meta has invested closely in efforts to develop what it referred to as “superintelligence” – know-how that it stated might out-think the neatest people.
The firm, which has made most of its cash from internet advertising, generated greater than $160bn in income in 2024.
In a submit on his social media platform, Threads, Zuckerberg stated Meta was constructing a number of multi-gigawatt clusters, and that one cluster, referred to as Hyperion, might scale as much as 5 gigawatts over a number of years.
“We’re constructing a number of extra titan clusters as nicely. Just certainly one of these covers a big a part of the footprint of Manhattan,” he added.
Prometheus will likely be inbuilt New Albany, Ohio, whereas Hyperion will likely be inbuilt Louisiana and is anticipated to be totally on-line by 2030, Zuckerberg stated.
He stated Meta would “make investments a whole lot of billions of {dollars}… to construct superintelligence” and that the centres had been given “names befitting their scale and impression”.
Karl Freund, principal analyst at Cambrian AI Research, instructed the BBC, “clearly, Zuckerberg intends to spend his option to the highest of the AI heap”.
“The expertise he’s hiring could have entry to a few of the finest AI Hardware on the earth,” Freund added.
Meta shares had been buying and selling 1% larger following the announcement, Reuters information company reported. The inventory has risen greater than 20% to date this 12 months.
There are not less than 10,000 information centres around the globe internet hosting the cloud – distant servers that retailer digital data – with most of them situated within the US, adopted by the UK and Germany.
AI-driven information centres are extraordinarily power and water intensive. One examine estimates that these centres might eat 1.7 trillion gallons of water globally by 2027. A single AI question – for instance, a request to ChatGPT – can use about as much water as a small bottle you’d buy from the corner shop.
By BBC
