Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is in talks to build a massive new data center dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) development, with an estimated cost exceeding $200 billion. Reports suggest that the company is considering locations in Louisiana, Wyoming, or Texas, and senior executives have recently visited potential sites.
The planned AI campus is part of Meta’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence, following CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last month that the company would spend up to $65 billion this year to expand its AI infrastructure.
Meta is not alone in making large-scale investments in AI. Microsoft has announced an $80 billion investment in data centers for fiscal year 2025, while Amazon is set to spend $100 billion next year—higher than its $75 billion investment in 2024.
The race to dominate AI development has seen tech giants ramping up infrastructure spending, with data centers playing a crucial role in processing and storing the vast amounts of information required for AI training and deployment.
Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Hiring Practices
While Meta pushes forward with its AI expansion, the company is also dealing with legal troubles. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Meta must face a lawsuit accusing it of favoring foreign workers over American citizens.
The lawsuit was filed by three U.S. citizens—Purushothaman Rajaram, an IT worker; Ekta Bhatia, a software engineer; and Qun Wang, a data scientist. They claim they applied for multiple jobs at Meta between 2020 and 2024 but were repeatedly rejected due to what they describe as the company’s “systematic preference” for visa holders.
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Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco ruled that the case could move forward as a proposed class action.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta prefers hiring foreign workers because the company can “pay them less than American workers.” It also points to Meta’s history of hiring practices, including a 2021 agreement where the company paid up to $14.25 million to settle federal claims that it had refused to consider American workers for positions set aside for temporary visa holders.
Meta, however, denies the allegations, calling them “baseless” and insisting that the company does not intentionally discriminate against U.S. workers.
“We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims,” Meta said in a statement.
The company also attempted to defend its hiring practices by citing statistics that 15% of its U.S. workforce holds H-1B visas, compared to 0.5% of the overall American workforce. However, the judge dismissed this argument, allowing the case to proceed.