Meta Forest City data center, Forest City, North Carolina

Meta's data center campus in Forest City, Rutherford County, North Carolina, on U.S. 74A and Old Caroleen Road, was one of Facebook's first two data center sites in North America, and the company has invested more than $750 million there since breaking ground in 2010. The campus now supports more than 275 operational jobs across three buildings, the largest a 480,000-square-foot data center backed by more than $200 million in investment with support from the Town of Forest City, Rutherford County and the state.

Meta says it worked with Duke Energy to pay the full cost of the energy the data center uses, and with the Town of Forest City to pay the full cost of its water and wastewater service. It says six projects in North Carolina are adding 410 megawatts of new renewable energy for it, and that it has given local schools and nonprofits more than $6.4 million since 2011.

A state bill advanced in May 2026 would require North Carolina data centers using at least 100 megawatts to use closed-loop cooling, assess their noise on nearby homes, pay the cost of the electricity they use, and would bar local governments from subsidizing them, while letting local governments require assessments of a data center's effects on water and farmland.

Local approvals for any further expansion at the Forest City site rest with the Town of Forest City and Rutherford County.