Meta president says building new data centers in US will get 'much harder' after midterms

Meta Platforms President Dina Powell McCormick said Wednesday (local time) that building new data centers in the United States will become far more difficult following the midterm elections.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's technology conference in Napa, California, McCormick said "multiple factors" contributed to the Democratic Party's strong showing in the elections, singling out opposition to data center construction as a major issue that significantly influenced the outcome.

"I expect there will be much more scrutiny on building new data centers," she said. "That means it's going to be very hard to build a new data center in the United States going forward."

However, McCormick said expanding existing facilities should be comparatively straightforward. "We've built a track record over the last few years, and communities have felt the benefits," she said. "Residents feel the real benefits more than the costs or burdens."

McCormick also said politicians' views could shift now that the election is over. She recounted that a governor-elect who had made data center opposition a central campaign issue reached out the night before, saying: "Let's meet after the inauguration. I don't want to miss out on the investment coming into our region, and I don't want to lose jobs to somewhere else."

Meta is currently building large-scale data centers in Louisiana, named "Hyperion," and in Ohio, named "Prometheus," and is also developing a data center in Texas in a joint venture with BlackRock. The governors-elect of Ohio and Texas have called for a conditional halt to new data center construction in their states.

McCormick said Meta is also looking at other countries where it could build data centers in a more favorable environment. "Every hyperscaler right now is asking, 'Do we need to build data centers outside the United States?'" she said. "Given the enormous investment involved, diversifying investment risk is a smart strategy."