Meta Confirmed as Developer Behind 3,000-Acre Data Center Campus in Mason County, Kentucky

Meta has been identified as the company behind a proposed data center campus spanning nearly 3,000 acres in Mason County, Kentucky, ending months of speculation about the identity of the developer. The disclosure came during an October 13 Mason County Fiscal Court meeting, where county commissioners approved a community benefits agreement with the technology giant.

The project carries an initial investment of $10 billion, with the potential for further expansion in subsequent phases. According to the terms of the agreement, Meta will generate more than 4,000 construction jobs and approximately 300 permanent positions once the facility is operational. The company has also committed $115 million toward infrastructure improvements, including road upgrades, water treatment plants, and pipeline construction, and will make annual payments to the county in the millions of dollars per development phase.

In exchange, Meta has secured a 40-year tax break on local property taxes. The deal includes $800 billion in Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs) for the project, with an estimated $10 billion allocated per phase.

The prospect of a large-scale data center campus in the area first surfaced in November 2025, when an anonymous developer began evaluating 5,000 acres of land near Big Pond and Tuckahoe roads. By May of this year, a 2,080-acre parcel in the vicinity had been rezoned for data center use, with planning documents indicating six data center buildings of approximately 718,740 square feet each, along with three substations. Power capacity at the site has been projected to potentially reach 2.2GW.

The project has drawn opposition from some local residents, with a petition against the development having gathered 1,429 signatures as of the time of writing. In response to community concerns, Meta stated: "We're grateful to the Mason County fiscal court for its careful review. With this potential project, we'll not only pay the full cost of the power we use, but we'll invest directly in Mason County — in schools, workforce training and local infrastructure — guided by what local leaders and residents tell us they need. We take seriously the diversity of opinions in the county, and we intend to keep showing up and listening, not just during the approval process but in the long run."

Mason County Judge Executive Owen McNeill praised the agreement, saying: "This agreement with Meta represents the hard work of many dedicated individuals and organizations that envisioned a brighter future for Mason County and all of our residents. Meta represents the pinnacle of technology companies that only a few short years ago, we would have never dreamt would invest here. For our community, closer to the rural end of the spectrum than urban, their investments positively address just about every issue our communities are facing today and will greatly bolster them well into the future."

The Mason County project reflects a broader trend of major technology companies pursuing large-scale data center developments in rural and semi-rural regions across the United States, drawn by available land, favorable tax incentives, and proximity to power infrastructure. As AI workloads and cloud computing demand continue to surge, such projects are becoming increasingly central to the expansion strategies of hyperscale operators, while also raising questions about local infrastructure capacity, energy consumption, and community impact.