Facebook plans to build an $800 million data center in Tennessee – the second such facility Facebook has announced in the Tennessee Valley in the past two years.
The new 982,000-square-foot data center under construction in Gallatin for Facebook is expected to employ about 100 workers, state economic development officials announced Wednesday.
The center, located about 30 miles northeast of Nashville, will house various types of workers, including technical operations, electricians, logistics staff and security. It is one of 18 such data centers, including 13 in the United States, that Facebook has built or is developing around the world to store and distribute the massive amounts of information the tech giant handles with more than 2.7 billion users around the globe.
“We chose Gallatin because of its terrific infrastructure, talented workforce, and the spirit of partnership the community offered,” said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data center strategy for Facebook. “This technology is actually what makes Facebook work, allowing people around the world to connect to each other.”
The announcement Wednesday follows three years of recruitment by state and local economic development officials and the Tennessee Valley Authority.