Meta Altoona Data Center Campus

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

1. 2013

   Operating
   Meta (Facebook) began building the Altoona campus in 2013; now its largest cloud campus at 5M+ sq ft after a seventh expansion; hosts GenAI/LLaMA compute Source: Data Center Frontier

Opposition and litigation at this site

Not that we can document. Local officials or residents have expressed public support for Meta Altoona Data Center Campus in Altoona, Polk County, Iowa, and no opposition, petition, or lawsuit appears in the sources this registry tracks as of August 14, 2026. Altoona Mayor Dean O'Connor, initially opposed, became supportive as the campus grew; Meta donated two water towers to the city and has given $4M+ locally; LEED Gold buildings.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: supported means local officials or residents have expressed public support and no opposition is documented.

Altoona Mayor Dean O'Connor, initially opposed, became supportive as the campus grew; Meta donated two water towers to the city and has given $4M+ locally; LEED Gold buildings. Resident-level concerns (water share, electricity rates, noise/light) are documented but no organized opposition or litigation was found.

Source: Warren County Record

Power and water

Served by MidAmerican Energy; Meta matches load with long-term Iowa wind PPAs, including the 225 MW Great Pathfinder Wind project (Boone & Hamilton Counties, Apex Clean Energy, ~2022) tied to Altoona. MidAmerican delivered ~100% renewable to its Iowa customers in 2022. No on-site generation.

Evaporative cooling with outside-air economization ~93% of the year (Meta design). Altoona utility director Daniel Scott: the campus 'can use up to a million gallons of water a day, one fifth of what the city can produce' - a permit peak/ceiling, not a measured average; a city agreement caps Meta at up to 16% of Altoona's supply. Water drawn from the Jordan Aquifer. No verified operational daily-use figure has been disclosed.

Public money on the record

Notes on the record

Operational since 2013; 5M+ sq ft after seven expansions, Meta's largest cloud campus. Meta's engineering blog documents Altoona as a GenAI infrastructure / LLaMA training site. INVESTMENT: 'more than $2.5 billion' is a cumulative multi-year figure across all expansions (in notes, not investmentUsd). 400+ on-site operations staff is a cumulative daily figure (in notes). ~350 MW per third-party index. Coordinates are the Altoona town centroid. Meta cites a cumulative capital investment of 'more than $2.5 billion' across seven Altoona expansions since 2013 (Data Center Frontier); the 2019 Building 5 phase was ~$400M (IEDA). Both are cumulative/single-phase figures -> investmentUsd omitted.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• Tract Altoona Technology Park · Altoona · Tractunder 1 mile · Permitted · 1 GW · Supported
• Oppidan Des Moines Data Center · Des Moines · Oppidan9 mi · Operating · 5 MW
• Edged Ankeny (Des Moines) Data Center · Ankeny · Edged Energy9 mi · Under construction · 13.2 MW
• Aureon 616 Data Center · Des Moines · Aureon9 mi · Operating
• Microsoft Project Alluvion Data Center · West Des Moines · Microsoft15 mi · Operating
• Microsoft Project Ginger East Data Center · West Des Moines · Microsoft16 mi · Under construction
• Tract Norwalk Data Center Park (Project West) · Norwalk · Tract17 mi · Proposed · Contested
• Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center · West Des Moines · Microsoft17 mi · Under construction · Mixed reception

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