Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is constructing a 5GW AI knowledge middle
Meta is at present constructing out a knowledge middle, referred to as Hyperion, which the corporate expects to provide its new AI lab with 5 gigawatts (GW) of computational energy, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a Monday put up on Threads.
The announcement marks Meta’s newest transfer to get forward of OpenAI and Google within the AI race. After beforehand poaching prime expertise to run Meta Superintelligence Lab, together with former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former Protected Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross, Meta now appears to be turning its consideration to the large computational energy wanted to coach frontier AI fashions.
Zuckerberg stated Hyperion’s footprint shall be giant sufficient to cowl most of Manhattan. Meta spokesperson Ashley Gabriel informed TechCrunch by way of e mail that Hyperion shall be situated in Louisiana, possible in Richland Parish the place Meta beforehand introduced a $10 billion knowledge middle improvement. Gabriel says Meta plans to convey two gigawatts of knowledge middle capability on-line by 2030 with Hyperion, however that it will scale to 5 gigawatts in a number of years.
Zuckerberg additionally famous that Meta plans to convey a 1 GW tremendous cluster, referred to as Prometheus, on-line in 2026, making it one of many first tech corporations to manage an AI knowledge middle of this dimension. Gabriel says Prometheus is situated in New Albany, Ohio.
Meta’s AI knowledge middle build-out appears prone to make the corporate extra aggressive with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic in its potential to coach and serve main AI fashions. It’s doable the hassle may additionally assist Meta appeal to extra expertise, who could also be drawn to work at an organization with the computational must compete within the AI race.
Collectively, Prometheus and Hyperion will take in sufficient vitality to energy hundreds of thousands of properties, which may pull important quantities of electrical energy and water from neighboring communities. One in every of Meta’s knowledge middle initiatives in Newton County, Georgia, has already induced the water faucets to run dry in some residents’ properties, The New York Occasions reported Monday.
Different AI knowledge middle initiatives could trigger related issues for individuals residing close to them. AI hyperscaler CoreWeave is planning a knowledge middle growth that’s projected to double the electrical energy wants of a metropolis close to Dallas, Texas, in keeping with Bloomberg.
However, tech corporations are decided to construct out large knowledge middle initiatives to energy their AI ambitions. Different notable efforts embody OpenAI’s Stargate venture with Oracle and SoftBank, in addition to xAI’s Colossus supercomputer.
The Trump administration has largely championed the tech business’s AI knowledge middle buildout. President Donald Trump helped OpenAI announce its Stargate venture, and has since spoken about efforts to develop America’s AI infrastructure.
In a column featured in The Economist on Monday, U.S. Secretary of Vitality Chris Wright referred to as for the U.S. to “lead the subsequent main energy-intensive frontier: synthetic intelligence.” He famous that AI transforms electrical energy into the “most useful output conceivable: intelligence,” and that the federal authorities would speed up the manufacturing of vitality derived from coal, nuclear, geothermal, and pure gasoline.
With the assist of federal officers, the AI business appears poised to absorb a lot of America’s vitality within the years to return. Consultants estimate that knowledge facilities may account for 20% of America’s vitality consumption by 2030, up from simply 2.5% in 2022. With out quickly elevated vitality manufacturing, that would trigger much more issues for communities.