Meta executive offers data center insights

Meta published an interview with its VP of Data Centers Rachel Peterson Thursday amid rising backlash over its massive data center developments across the U.S. In the interview, Petersen outlined the benefits of data center expansion and discussed how Meta wants to benefit local economies.

In the 16-minute clip, Peterson discussed the company’s approach to data center development and outlined some of the considerations that are factored into its process.

Peterson first discussed Meta’s goal of “personal superintelligence” for everyone, which she said would require vast amounts of data processing to facilitate its artificial intelligence ambitions.

Peterson said that her personal view of what personal superintelligence means is “having the utmost experts who understand your unique preferences, your unique ways of wanting to operate, that is personalized to you, that makes you the most effective and efficient person that you can be.”

To provide this, Meta’s AI tools need ample data processing capacity to facilitate this type of personalization and utility at scale.

That’s why Meta ramped up its data center development. The platform committed more than $600 billion to U.S. data center projects over the next three years.

Peterson said the majority of Meta’s data center development work has been initiated over the past two years as the company has accelerated its program.

Yet, those projects have also had negative impacts in some regions.

In Morgan County, Georgia, Meta’s data center works have led to water contamination and utilities impacts, which prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to call for action to limit the development. In Fayetteville, Georgia, Politico reported that an AI infrastructure project drained 30 million gallons of unmetered water, impacting local residents. Meanwhile in Northern Virginia, data center projects in Loudoun and Fairfax counties used nearly 2 billion gallons of water in 2023, as per The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. That project forced local water authorities to increasingly rely on potable water rather than reclaimed water for cooling.

The community backlash against data centers has led to a significant decline in support for these projects, despite Meta and others presenting the long-term economic benefits.

According to a recent report by Time Magazine, only a third of Americans approve of the pace of data center development. On the other hand, more than 300 cities, towns and counties have enacted bans or moratoriums on the construction of hyperscale data centers.

On July 18, a national day of protest against data centers saw 142 protests across 42 states. 

In terms of limiting negative impacts, Peterson said that Meta’s assessment process for data center locations included exploring requirements for power, water, labor availability and more, in order to facilitate the most efficient construction.

Peterson also discussed Meta’s community involvement. She said that the community “has to be a place where we’re going to put our roots down for 20 years, and that means we want to be part of the community.”

Peterson said that Meta works to restore more water than it’s actually consuming, and works with utility grid providers in data center locations to ensure that it has the resources it needs, and that it will be able to minimize impacts on local residents.

Peterson added that Meta’s infrastructure support efforts sometimes actually bring down utilities costs in some data center regions because they help to make the local grid more efficient.

“I think this is a misconception that people may have of us and other data centers coming in and taking more than their fair share, [and] passing on costs, when in reality, our investments are oftentimes helping the electric grid bring reliability and consuming costs that otherwise would have been passed onto everyday residential consumers,” Peterson said.

Peterson added that Meta’s data centers are designed to be closed-loop systems, which means that they’re not discharging waste, and water usage at its facilities is “pretty minimal.”

It’s the latest in Meta’s broader PR push to counter concerns around its data center projects in an effort to maintain community support and ease the path of its projects.

In June, Meta launched a new project called America’s Workforce Academy, which will see Meta partner with a range of construction-related organizations to provide training and placement opportunities for people in regions where the company is building its data processing infrastructure.

In combination, Meta is hoping it can alleviate concerns and win more people over with its approach to development. Though as more regions continue to report concerns with data center development, the company could still face more pushback.