Meta Announces New Expansion to Altoona Campus + New Hardhat in Hand Graduates

At a ceremony held at Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack & Hotel in Altoona, IA, Meta (formerly Facebook) and our general contractor, Turner Construction Company, proudly recognized seven new graduates from the Hardhat in Hand program, a nationwide construction jobs training program held at Meta data center construction sites. This is the second Hardhat in Hand class to graduate in Altoona this year. This educational partnership is supported by Meta, Turner, and DMACC. Over the past eight weeks, this cohort has completed classroom work and on-the-job training which may result in the opportunity for a position with Turner or one of its trade partners.

The second piece of good news for these graduates, and the hundreds of other construction workers on-site at Meta Altoona Data Center: there will be plenty of work to keep them busy. Meta is again expanding its Altoona campus with two new buildings, which upon completion brings the total square footage to more than 5 million. When finished, this will make Altoona our largest operational data center in the world.

This is our seventh expansion announcement for the Altoona Data Center where we started building in 2013. More than 400 people work on-site in data center operations each day. The buildout is expected to be completed in 2025, which means an average of 1,000 construction workers have been on-site for over 12 years. This campus represents a capital investment of more than $2.5 billion in the City of Altoona and the state of Iowa.

Building a 5 million square foot data center campus means achieving some major milestones. Since 2013, we’ve poured 400,000 yards of concrete, erected 26,000 tons of steel, and accumulated 8.7 million work hours. Our goal is to continue to build and operate the most energy efficient data centers in the world.

The Altoona Data Center will continue to be supported by 100% renewable wind energy. We recently reached our goal of net zero emissions in our global operations and we intend to reach net zero emissions in our value chain by 2030.

The Hardhat in Hand program is just one example of our continued investment in the growth and vitality of eastern Polk County. Through grant programs and sponsorships, Meta has invested more than $2.6 million in our community. We’ve helped build STEM education curriculums at the Southeast Polk and Bondurant-Farrar Community School Districts. During the COVID lockdowns, we infused funds into small businesses, schools, and nonprofits to create safety nets for community members and students. And we look for opportunities to assist with special projects, like supporting the buildout of the Altoona and Bondurant access points to the ICON Water Trails project, which will improve 150 miles of waterways for Iowans.

We call Altoona home and we are so happy to be here. The City of Altoona and Greater Des Moines Partnership were day one community partners and we look forward to investing in the continued vitality of this area.

Follow our Altoona Data Center journey