Lebanon is officially in the big-tech club. Meta Platforms has started construction on a more-than-$10 billion data center campus inside the LEAP Research and Innovation District outside Lebanon in Boone County, a sprawling, multi-phase build that the company says will eventually deliver roughly 1 gigawatt of compute capacity across about 1,500 acres to feed its AI workloads and core services.
In a company post, Meta said the Lebanon campus "represents an investment of over $10 billion" and estimated the project will support more than 4,000 construction jobs at peak and roughly 300 permanent, high-wage positions, according to Meta. State and company officials turned out for Wednesday's groundbreaking, which drew local TV coverage from WISH‑TV.
Lebanon officials have signed off on a hefty incentive package to land the project. The city says the plan covers about 1,500 acres and includes a stack of abatements, including a 10-year, 50% real-property tax abatement and a long personal-property abatement, and that Meta will make annual community impact payments to the city, according to the City of Lebanon.
Company Commitments and Infrastructure Investments
Meta is pairing the data campus with a slate of local programs and infrastructure spending. The company said it will fund a Boone County workforce initiative, launch an annual Community Action Grants program, and provide multi-year donations to help residents with utility bills. Meta also pledged to match the site's energy use with clean power, target LEED Gold certification for its buildings, and put more than $120 million into water and other public-works upgrades tied to the project, per Meta.
Voices in the Community and Lingering Questions
Not everyone in Boone County is cheering. Community groups and some residents have raised alarms about losing farmland, how much water the LEAP district will consume, and what they see as limited transparency around the broader LEAP buildout, according to public comments and meeting records. Local reporting has also highlighted ongoing debate over water supply plans and the scale of utility upgrades needed to serve the district, which city and state officials say they are coordinating to address, according to reporting from WIBC.
Why the Site Matters
Inside the industry, a campus of this size is not just another server farm. Gigawatt-scale sites are increasingly treated as critical infrastructure for next-generation AI, since they bundle massive power, cooling, and network capacity in one place. Meta's Lebanon build fits that pattern and illustrates why states are aggressively courting large compute projects with incentives and utility partnerships. Trade coverage has pointed to a broader push for large, utility-backed locations as companies race to expand AI compute capacity, per DataCenterDynamics.
For now, the visible action will be on the ground. Officials say land clearing and utility work will roll out in the coming months while more detailed site plans and permitting take shape, with the city and Meta expected to provide updates as each phase of the campus comes online.
