Meta spent $6.4 million on TV ads promoting data centers and jobs

Meta ran a $6.4 million television ad campaign in November and December, placing spots in the markets of eight state capitals — including Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Tallahassee — and Washington, D.C., to promote data centers and the jobs they create. One ad featured scenes from Altoona, Iowa, where Meta has built a large data center complex.

The ads come as Meta, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are investing heavily in data centers to build artificial intelligence, a buildup the article says has drawn criticism from President Trump and lawmakers who blame such sites for higher energy costs and water strain. Michael Beach of Cross Screen Media said Meta most likely bought the ads “with the goal of shaping policy decisions.” Other industry efforts include an Amazon-backed campaign in Virginia run by Virginia Connects that began in December 2024, which the Data Center Coalition’s president said helps “inform communities and policymakers.” Meta said it paid the full costs of energy used by its data centers and did not comment directly on the ads; Amazon declined to comment.

Meta operates 26 U.S. data centers and has said it will spend $600 billion to build new ones, and the company also unveiled two political action committees to back candidates who support A.I., which Meta said is separate from the ad spending.

Key Topics

Tech, Meta, Data Centers, Altoona, Virginia Connects, Data Center Coalition