Meta expands Central Texas presence with a new $800M data center in Temple

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is expanding in Central Texas with plans for an $800 million Hyperscale Data Center an hour north of Austin, in Temple.

This follows news from the start of the year that Meta plans to expand its Austin workforce and take on the largest lease ever in downtown Austin.

The Temple facility is set to begin construction this spring. Once finished, it’ll be about 900,000 square feet and sit off Industrial Boulevard and Northwest H K Dodgen Loop.

Meta expects to bring on 1,250 construction workers to build the center and will have about 100 operational jobs.

As the second data center Meta has established in Texas following the initial Fort Worth facility, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the company’s expansion is a testament to the state’s “exceptional business climate.”

"It is because of hardworking Texans and our commitment to helping businesses grow that companies continue to move and expand all across Texas,” Abbott said. “We are excited to welcome Meta to Temple and look forward to the new job opportunities they will bring to the local community, as well as the advancements in technology we will see in the future."

Adrian Cannady, CEO of Temple Economic Development Corporation, said he was thrilled with the announcement.

"Texas was recently named the top state in the nation for tech worker migration,” Cannady said. “When you combine that with Temple's low cost of doing business and central location between major markets, it creates an incredible competitive advantage for our region.”

The announcement boasted Temple as a regional employment hub on the rise, noting that the center will be in a “prime location” between Dallas and Austin where there’s a low cost of living and expanding career opportunities.