The Meta Kuna Data Center project is a 960,000-square-foot hyperscale facility being developed by Meta Platforms on a 485-acre site in Kuna, Idaho, roughly 18 miles southwest of Boise. Construction reached peak activity in late 2024 and into 2025, with approximately 1,400 workers on site, exceeding original projections by 200, and Meta confirming that exterior work across all buildings was complete with paving and landscaping the remaining outstanding items.

One Year Later, One Reason: AI Drove the Delay

The rapid escalation of hyperscale investment across the Upper Midwest and Mountain West has unfolded alongside mounting scrutiny over how these facilities are approved and integrated into local infrastructure systems, a tension underscored by the court-ordered halt to Google’s Project Skyway data center in Pine Island, Minnesota. The project’s original 2025 completion target has meanwhile been pushed to the end of 2026, a one-year slip that Meta has attributed directly to a mid-build redesign to support artificial intelligence workloads. Meta spokesperson Stacey Yip confirmed the redesign involved building a greater level of flexibility into the facility’s systems, as AI server infrastructure demands substantially different thermal and power management conditions than conventional cloud services. Meta’s own data center portfolio page has since revised the Kuna investment figure upward to more than $1 billion, with operational employment now listed at 200 or more permanent positions, both increases on the figures stated at the time of the original announcement. The company’s water and sewer infrastructure commitment to the city has also grown, from the originally cited $50 million to $70 million, with the upgraded system to be donated to Kuna for public ownership and operation. In parallel, Kuna approved a second data center campus in April 2025: the Gemstone Technology Park, a separate $1 billion-plus development by Diode Ventures on 620 acres roughly six miles west of the Meta site.

Project Overview

• Project Name: Meta Kuna Data Center
• Location: Kuna, Ada County, Idaho, USA (intersection of Kuna Mora Road and South Cole Road)
• Developer / Owner: Meta Platforms, Inc.
• Total Cost / Value: More than $1 billion (revised upward from the original $800 million figure)
• Scale / Capacity: 960,000 square feet across 485 acres; powered by 100% renewable energy via Idaho Power clean energy tariff; 200 MW of renewable energy added to the state grid
• Construction Start: September 2022
• Expected Completion: End of 2026 (revised from original 2025 target due to AI infrastructure redesign)
• Funding / Financing: Fully funded by Meta Platforms; $70 million water and sewer infrastructure commitment donated to the City of Kuna
• Current Status: Peak construction passed; building exteriors complete; paving and landscaping finalization underway as of early 2025
• Key Milestone: Mid-build redesign to accommodate AI workloads; workforce at peak exceeded projections at 1,400 workers on site

Project Team

• Meta Platforms, Inc. — Developer, Owner and Future Operator
• Hensel Phelps Construction (Colorado) — General Contractor
• Engineered Structures Inc. (Boise, Idaho) — General Contractor
• Idaho Power — Energy Partner (renewable energy tariff supply)
• Idaho Department of Commerce — State Economic Development Authority
• City of Kuna — Local Government and Future Owner of Water and Sewer Infrastructure

Reported 24th February 2022: Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly known as Facebook, Inc. has announced plans to construct a 960,000-square-foot Kuna Data Center in Idaho at an approximated cost of US$ 800M.

The facility will be situated next to the cross streets of Kuna Mora Road and South Cole Road, according to Cody Allred, the public information officer with the Idaho Department of Commerce. Officials at the American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California, reportedly thought of Kuna as a perfect area because of its access to renewable energy, infrastructure, community partners as well as a talent pool.

Start of construction and expectations for the Kuna Data Center

The construction works are anticipated to begin in September 2022 and last through 2025. The project according to Tom Kealey, Idaho’s Department of Commerce director will directly offer 100 jobs, and 1,200 jobs will be available at peak construction.

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Noteworthy, the hub, similar to Meta’s other data centers, is designed to run utilizing 100% renewable energy, as well as wind and solar, using at least 80% less water than the industry average. It will also be the earliest scheme to exploit the state’s new tax breaks – and the first to deploy Idaho Power’s clean energy tariff.

Additional investments

Other than the construction of the Kuna Data Center in Idaho, the US$ 800M investment according to Darcy Nothnagle,  the director of global data center community and economic development at Meta, will also extend to develop local infrastructure as well as construct wastewater and sewer infrastructure.

Other investments the company will be adding include a “community action grants program” that will help STEM education, as well as funding water restoration schemes to “replenish watersheds.”  “We’re delighted to be here in Idaho and we anticipate having a great cooperation for years to come,” said Nothnagle.