Construction work has resumed in Meta’s Prometheus data center in New Albany, Ohio after a firearm incident at the site. The site was evacuated earlier this week over an incident involving a firearm. A worker on the site who had been fired allegedly threatened his supervisor with a firearm. Security personnel managed to take possession of the firearm and the worker ran off and got into a vehicle, according to reports.
The contracted company, Turner Construction, resorted to evacuate more than a thousand workers from the site as precaution. A spokesperson for Turner noted that the individual had been released from employment due to unexcused absences. However, he later arrived at the site and made threats towards the supervisor. The authorities were notified but due to abundance of caution, work was paused and the site evacuated. Resumption means that the delay will not have a major impact on the data center’s plans as opening is scheduled for 2026. The project compliments other data centers Meta is currently working on such as their $1 billion optimized AI data center in Wisconsin.
Prometheus Data center- New Albany: Project Factsheet.
Project Overview
Project Specialty: Data Center Prometheus.
Location: New Albany, Ohio
User/Developer: Meta Platforms, Inc.
Construction Consortium: Turner Construction.
Project Category: AI-based hyper scale data center (supercluster).
Scheduled Opening: 2026
Status: Building development was resumed after the momentary evacuation due to a gunshot incident with a former employee.
Key Incident Summary
Incident Time: Early November, 2025.
Nature of Incident: The fired employee came back to the location and intimidated the supervisor with a gun.
Action Taken (Security): Security guards locked down the weapon; person ran out of the premises.
Short-term Response: Turner Construction moved over 1, 000 employees out.
Law Enforcement: In a precautionary measure, the authorities were alerted.
Freeze/Unfreeze/recovery: small; the work has already resumed, and no significant delays are anticipated.
Prometheus Data Center Key Statistics
Overall Capacity: 1 gigawatt (first in the world)
Type of Data Center: Next-generation infrastructure based on AI supercluster.
Strategic Advantage:
Chosen on the basis of high grid reliability.
Well-developed infrastructure in the area.
New Albany business friendly initiatives.
Project Significance
A first-of-its-kind data center of 1-gigawatts capacity with a world record.
Also funds multibillion-dollar investment by Meta through AI superclusters.
Enhances the status of New Albany as a trading center of high-tech digital services.
The next generation AI systems and large-scale computing workloads at Meta are dependent on it.
Is also being regarded as a vote of trust in the economic and infrastructural situation in the city.
Significance of Meta’s Prometheus Data Center Once Completed
Meta’s data center is expected to be of monumental significance once complete. It will be the world’s first one-gigawatt data center. Prometheus is also expected to be a supercluster, a type of data center known for its massive size and capacity. These centers are able to power next-generation AI infrastructure, and have a higher capacity than any data center currently built. However, companies like OpenAI and Google are also planning gigawatt-capable centers. Zuckerburg said Meta is investing billions in AI superclusters. In a statement, New Albany called Meta’s investment a “vote of confidence” in New Albany’s business-friendly initiatives.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed New Albany’s business initiatives helped them choose the city for this project. Meta also said it chose New Albany for its first gigawatt-capable site because of its access to infrastructure and reliable grid. Prometheus’ sister supercluster, Hyperion, will have up to five gigawatts capacity and is under construction in Louisiana. Furthermore, Hyperion will take up the same land area as much of Manhattan, and will be the largest data center in the Western Hemisphere.
