Facebook to triple size of New Mexico data centre in $1bn investment
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Facebook to triple size of New Mexico data centre in $1bn investment

Facebook has unveiled plans to triple the size of its Los Lunas data centre to include six buildings as part of $1bn expansion

The social media firm had previously committed to building a New Mexico data centre with two buildings the size of four football fields, but has now increased its planned development to cover 2.8 million square foot of interior space.

The site will be powered by a solar-energy grid, with fibre optic lines stretching more than 350 miles into Texas, according to reports in the US state.

The company broke ground in October 2016 on the first $250 million phase of the project, expected to be operational late next year, which also includes a 510,000-square-foot building and administrative space.

The expansion of the project will mean a new timeline of six-years for the overall site to be completed, according to Facebook’s senior director of global construction Darren Daskarolis, who told the Santa Few New Mexican it would see keep between 800-1000 construction workers employed through to 2023.

“A six-year job allows someone to come in as an apprentice and leave a trained engineer,” Daskarolis said. “It means new careers in New Mexico.”

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