Meta Infrastructure Partner Acquires $42 Million Land Parcel Near Ohio Data Center Hub

Meta Infrastructure Partner Acquires $42 Million Land Parcel Near Ohio Data Center Hub January 14, 2026 A key infrastructure partner for Meta has made a significant land acquisition in New Albany, Ohio, signaling potential further expansion of the social media giant's critical data center operations in the region. The move underscores the intense demand for computing power driven by artificial intelligence and the strategic land banking occurring in key data center markets. Sidecat LLC, a sub-contractor and sub-processor listed for Meta's data infrastructure projects, purchased a parcel of land at 3439-3445 Clover Valley Road on December 24, 2025, for a sum of $42 million. The newly acquired site is situated approximately a 12-minute drive from Meta's existing and rapidly growing New Albany campus. This acquisition follows a series of major investments by Meta in the area. In April 2025, the company announced an expansion of its New Albany campus, adding two buildings totaling around 1 million square feet and bringing its total investment there to $1.5 billion. Furthermore, Meta recently secured agreements for up to 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power to support its energy infrastructure, with the generated power intended for grids supplying its operations, including the Prometheus supercluster under development in New Albany. Meta aims to bring the multi-gigawatt Prometheus data center cluster online in 2026, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating the company plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into the project to advance its AI and superintelligence ambitions. While the purpose of the land purchased by Sidecat has not been officially confirmed, its proximity to Meta's core campus and the timing of the deal strongly suggest it is related to supporting this massive infrastructure build-out. The company has not clarified whether the land is earmarked for a new data center project, the Prometheus cluster, or ancillary support facilities. The transaction highlights the layered and often opaque nature of hyperscale data center development, where partners and subcontractors frequently secure land and develop shell buildings ahead of official tenant announcements. For the industry, it points to sustained, capital-intensive growth in established hubs like central Ohio, driven by the insatiable compute and power requirements of the AI era. Source: datacenterdynamics