{"slug": "meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents", "title": "Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents", "summary": "Meta has constructed six tent-like \"rapid deployment structures\" outside New Albany, Ohio, to house AI data centers, cutting construction time in half by borrowing tactics from Tesla and xAI. The 125,000-square-foot tents, built between April and June 2026, contain billions of dollars in AI chips and are powered by modular gas turbines. The move comes as Meta faces delays in releasing its AI model, Muse Spark, to developers, while the company plans to spend up to $145 billion on data centers.", "body_md": "Just when you thought the AI data center boom couldn’t get any crazier, Meta has gone and built data centers in tents. The strategy appears to borrow in equal parts from Tesla and xAI.\n\nIn a bid to cut the time to completion in half, Meta has built six tents — or “rapid deployment structures” as the company describes them — outside of New Albany, Ohio, according to Michael Thomas, founder of [Cleanview](https://cleanview.co), which tracks data center deployments.\n\nThomas’ discovery isn’t totally new. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg [spoke to the Information](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDOy90V4Jo) last year about his plan to use weatherproof tents to house the company’s multi-gigawatt data centers.\n\nBut Thomas’ images and review of local permits showcase the speed of construction and scale of the project. According to city permits reviewed by Thomas, Meta started building five 125,000-square-foot tents between April and June 2026. The satellite images he shared in his post on X, show the structures have all been built.\n\nThe use of tents is reminiscent to those that Tesla built in the parking lot of its Fremont, California factory when it was rushing to roll out the Model 3. Nearby, 200 megawatts of [modular gas turbines](https://www.power-eng.com/gas/williams-pushes-deeper-into-power-generation-as-data-center-demand-accelerates/) provide power to the site, a tactic widely deployed by competitor xAI.\n\nInside the tents, AI chips, likely worth billions of dollars, will go about their business.\n\nThe tents have sprung up as Meta has struggled to release its AI models to developers. A recent [report](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-keeps-delaying-the-release-of-its-new-ai-model-to-developers-f8569c8c?mod=lead_feature_below_a_pos1) in the Wall Street Journal said that, while its latest model, Muse Spark, is complete, the APIs that developers rely on to access LLMs from their applications has been repeatedly delayed.\n\nMeta has said it intends to spend up to $145 billion on data centers and other capital expenditures. Wall Street hasn’t liked the sounds of that, with Meta’s stock trading down 5% this year. Putting AI chips in tents is one way to trim the bill.\n\nTechCrunch has reached out to Meta for comment and will update this article if it responds.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/04/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents/", "published_at": "2026-06-04 19:33:09+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-04 20:03:32.620846+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Meta", "Tesla", "xAI", "Mark Zuckerberg", "Michael Thomas", "Cleanview", "New Albany", "Ohio"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents.jsonld"}}