# Meta Brings $1.2B Temple, Texas Data Center Online as First AI-Optimized U.S. Facility > Source: > Published: 2026-07-23 16:53:00.311917+00:00 # Meta Brings $1.2B Temple, Texas Data Center Online as First AI-Optimized U.S. Facility - Meta's Temple, Texas data center went live on July 22, 2026, representing a $1.2 billion investment across a 386-acre, three-building campus [[1]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-starts-operations-at-data-center-in-temple-texas/).[[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) - The facility is Meta's first AI-optimized data center in the U.S., redesigned in 2023 with dry-cooling and closed-loop liquid-cooling systems [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/).[[3]](https://jedunn.com/projects/meta-temple-data-center/) - The campus encompasses over 750,000 square feet and approximately 198 MW of power capacity, matched with 100% renewable energy [[3]](https://jedunn.com/projects/meta-temple-data-center/).[[4]](https://www.templetx.gov/news_detail_T13_R305.php) - Meta's 2026 capex guidance stands at $125-145 billion, nearly double the $72.2 billion spent in 2025 .[[5]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-estimates-2026-capex-to-be-between-115-135bn/) - The project employed over 1,200 construction workers at peak and will support approximately 100 permanent operational roles .[[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) Meta began operations at its $1.2 billion data center in Temple, Texas on July 22, 2026, the company's first AI-optimized facility in the United States [[1]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-starts-operations-at-data-center-in-temple-texas/) [2]. The campus sits on 386 acres off Industrial Boulevard and comprises three buildings totaling more than 750,000 square feet of data center and administrative space . [[3]](https://jedunn.com/projects/meta-temple-data-center/)The Temple facility originally broke ground in spring 2022 with an initial investment pegged at $800 million [4]. Meta paused and redesigned the project in 2023 to accommodate AI-specific workloads, ultimately increasing the total investment to $1.2 billion . The campus features both dry-cooling technology and a closed-loop liquid-cooling system designed to use zero water for the majority of the year [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/). [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/)Temple is one node in Meta's rapidly expanding U.S. data center footprint. The company is simultaneously developing a gigawatt-scale campus in Louisiana through a $27 billion joint venture with Blue Owl and has boosted investment in its El Paso facility to $10 billion [[5]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-estimates-2026-capex-to-be-between-115-135bn/) [6]. Meta's 2026 capital expenditure guidance of $125-145 billion represents nearly double the $72.2 billion it spent in 2025 . [[5]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-estimates-2026-capex-to-be-between-115-135bn/)## The Site The Temple campus occupies 393 acres at 3101 Industrial Boulevard, roughly 65 miles north of Austin. JE Dunn Construction served as general contractor for the three-building development [[3]](https://jedunn.com/projects/meta-temple-data-center/) [4]. The facility has approximately 198 MW of power capacity and is designed to accommodate both traditional air-cooled servers and liquid-cooled systems as compute density increases . [[7]](https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/texas/waco/meta-temple-data-center/)Meta invested $8 million in local public water and wastewater infrastructure improvements tied to the project and has set a target to return 5.2 million gallons annually to the local watershed by 2030 [2]. The company says the facility uses 32% less energy than industry standard and is 80% more water-efficient than the average data center, with LEED Gold certification targeted . [[4]](https://www.templetx.gov/news_detail_T13_R305.php)## Power & Cooling All energy consumption at the Temple facility is matched with 100% clean and renewable energy. Meta says it has invested in more than 700 MW of new wind and solar generation capacity across Texas, supporting over 40 renewable energy projects in the state [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) [4]. The cooling architecture represents a hybrid approach: dry-cooling towers handle the base thermal load without consuming water, while a closed-loop liquid-cooling system addresses higher-density AI compute racks. Meta says the liquid-cooling system will use zero water for the majority of the year, a notable design choice for a facility in central Texas [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) [7]. ## AI-Optimized Redesign The Temple facility's 2023 redesign is significant. Meta paused construction to retool the campus for AI training and inference workloads, a pattern the company also applied to its Idaho data center project [8]. The redesign increased the investment from $800 million to $1.2 billion and added liquid-cooling infrastructure to support GPU-dense compute clusters [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/). [[4]](https://www.templetx.gov/news_detail_T13_R305.php)Meta has described Temple as its first AI-optimized data center to come online in the United States, distinguishing it from the company's older facilities that were originally designed for general-purpose social media and advertising workloads [2]. ## Community & Economic Impact The project employed over 1,200 skilled trade workers at peak construction and will support approximately 100 permanent operational positions [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) [4]. Meta has distributed $1.7 million in grants to Bell County schools and nonprofits, including a recent $400,000 grant for AI and STEM learning labs spanning pre-K through 12th grade . [[2]](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/)Temple's Economic Development Corporation has positioned the city as a data center corridor. A separate data center project near the Meta campus was reported by GovTech, signaling broader interest in the area's power and land availability [9]. ## Meta's Broader Buildout Temple's opening comes as Meta accelerates data center deployment across multiple fronts. The company's El Paso campus has grown from a $1.5 billion initial commitment to a $10 billion project [6]. In Louisiana, Meta and Blue Owl Capital are developing what the company has described as a multi-gigawatt campus . [[5]](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-estimates-2026-capex-to-be-between-115-135bn/)CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta plans to build tens of gigawatts of data center capacity this decade and 'hundreds of gigawatts or more over time.' The company's 2026 capex guidance of $125-145 billion — raised from an earlier $115-135 billion range — reflects both higher component costs and additional data center spending to support future-year capacity [5]. ## Companies mentioned ## Further sources [[1] Data Center Dynamics — Meta starts operations at data center in Temple, Texas ↗](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-starts-operations-at-data-center-in-temple-texas/) [[2] KWTX — Meta goes live in Temple with $1.2 billion AI data center ↗](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/07/22/meta-goes-live-temple-with-12-billion-ai-data-center/) [[3] JE Dunn Construction — Meta Temple Data Center project page ↗](https://jedunn.com/projects/meta-temple-data-center/) [[4] City of Temple — Meta to build new Hyperscale Data Center in Temple ↗](https://www.templetx.gov/news_detail_T13_R305.php) [[5] Data Center Dynamics — Meta estimates 2026 capex to be between $115-135bn ↗](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/meta-estimates-2026-capex-to-be-between-115-135bn/) [[6] El Paso Matters — Inside the power deal behind Meta's El Paso data center now a… ↗](https://elpasomatters.org/2026/03/29/meta-data-center-el-paso-10-billion-expansion-water-gas-electricity-usage/)+3 more The stories that matter, in one email. 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