Meta has opted for a major data center expansion in Odense, Denmark, laying off the main contractor at two facilities in the country.
According to the report by Data center dynamics (opens in a new tab)the move is the result of the company’s shift towards building data centers whose technology is more suited to the requirements of modern AI workloads.
“Having large-scale AI workloads requires a different kind of data center than those built to run our regular online services,” said Peter Münster, Head of Centers.
Meta is currently reworking the 11 projects currently in development for these new AI workloads, which themselves are still in development as the new projects have not yet been finalized, according to publication sources.
GPUs built specifically for AI workloads or machine learning (ML) databases, for example, may require significantly more electrical power to operate effectively.
In addition, Meta also announced that it was to halt construction of a planned 900,000-square-foot data center in Temple, Texas, which construction had only begun in the spring.
While Meta’s recent performance hasn’t been the best in the world, its market capitalization has lost more than half its value since January 2022, data centers are one area it has pledged to continue investing in.
While the company says it intends to significantly cut spending in many other areas, it said it intends to make “continuous investments” in its data centers.
Meta spokesman said summon sent by Seeking Alpha (opens in a new tab)“We believe the additional data center capacity will give us greater flexibility in the types of servers we buy and allow us to use them for longer, which we expect will result in greater cost efficiency over time.”
In November 2022 Meta laid off approximately 11,000 workers (opens in a new tab)around 13% of the global workforce, saying it was “restructuring teams” to “increase efficiency”, highlighting areas such as the “property footprint” for cuts.
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