Inside Meta’s new Kuna data center built for AI
Meta's new data center in Kuna, Idaho, is now online and operational after four years of construction, optimized for AI hardware. The facility features closed-loop cooling with minimal water consumption and its electricity use is matched with 100% clean and renewable energy. Meta has also invested significantly in local infrastructure and community grants, including a dedicated water and wastewater system for Kuna and a $200,000 grant for the Kuna School District.
After four years of construction, Meta's new data center on the outskirts of Kuna, Idaho, is officially online and operational. The massive 750,000-square-foot facility, with two buildings already serving online traffic, is specifically optimized for Meta's latest artificial-intelligence hardware, processing, storing, and transmitting data globally.
Scott Stillings, Meta Critical Operations Manager, highlighted the facility's advanced infrastructure, including data halls housing 1,600 server racks each, connected by fiber-optic cables. Robots are employed to transport heavy server racks, which are designed for tool-less maintenance as part of the Open Compute Project. The primary data center buildings utilize a closed-loop cooling system, which Meta states has no evaporative water loss and requires water replacement only every seven to ten years, though a smaller portion of the campus uses evaporative cooling.
Meta also emphasized its commitment to sustainability and community investment. The data center's electricity consumption is matched with 100% clean and renewable energy, supported by three Meta-funded energy projects expected to add 645 megawatts of renewable power in Ada County. The company has invested over $1.2 billion in the project, creating more than 75 operational jobs and contributing over $100 million to a dedicated water and wastewater system for Kuna, designed with additional capacity for future local development. Additionally, Meta announced a $200,000 grant for the Kuna School District to support robotics and engineering education, preschool scholarships, technology upgrades, and expanded virtual learning, bringing its total local contributions to over $1.5 million in the Ada County area.