Mark Zuckerberg photo with Meta logo overlay
Image Credits:VINCENT FEURAY/Hans Lucas/AFP / Getty Images

Meta is reportedly using actual tents to build data centers

Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are in a hurry to build their superintelligence tech. The company has been poaching AI researchers, while Zuckerberg announced on Monday that Meta is building a 5-gigawatt data center called Hyperion.

The urgency is palpable. As SemiAnalysis reported last week and Business Insider noted, Meta is so eager to boost its computing power that it’s literally erecting tents for temporary data center capacity while its facilities are still under construction.

These are all signs that Meta wants to build up its AI capacity faster after falling behind competitors like OpenAI, xAI, and Google — and that Zuckerberg isn’t willing to wait for typical construction timelines to close the gap.

“This design isn’t about beauty or redundancy. It’s about getting compute online fast!” SemiAnalysis said in its report. “From prefabricated power and cooling modules to ultra-light structures, speed is of the essence as there is no backup generation (ie, no diesel generators in sight),” it added.

As for its Hyperion data center, Meta spokesperson Ashley Gabriel tells TechCrunch that it will be located in Louisiana and will likely have a capacity of 2 gigawatts by 2030.

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