Meta’s data center campus in Kansas City, Missouri, is live.

The company this week announced the facility is now operational and serving traffic.

“In 2022, we selected Kansas City because it offered excellent infrastructure, a robust electrical grid, a strong pool of talent for construction and operations jobs, and incredible community partners," said Brad Davis, data center community and economic development director at Meta.

"We are extremely proud to be part of this community, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership for years to come."

Announced and breaking ground in 2022, the social media firm said the project represents a $1 billion investment.

The new data center is LEED Gold certified, and its electricity use is matched with renewable energy. It also captures and repurposes stormwater from onsite retention ponds.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said: “Meta’s investment in Kansas City is a clear signal that our city is a place where innovation, talent, and community come together. We look forward to working with Meta to ensure this development integrates well with our community priorities and delivers meaningful benefits for Kansas City residents."

Meta’s AI data center design to go live next year

Meta has around 30 data center campuses live or in development, with more in the pipeline, including plans for gigawatt-scale developments. The majority of its footprint is within the US. It is also a major lessee of facilities.

Meta paused development of around a dozen data centers in late 2022 as part of a "rescoping" of its designs to better cater to GPUs and liquid cooling. It has since resumed its build-out with the updated design.

The company said this week that its first data centers with AI-optimized designs are slated to come online in 2026, and will “blend high-performance and flexibility with a mix of custom hardware solutions.”

Meta is building out at such a pace that the company is placing IT hardware in large temporary tents in some locations.

On the energy side, Meta said this week it has purchased more than 15GW of renewable power across six countries in total, making it one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy globally.