US tech company Meta Platforms has ended work on two data centres in Odense, Denmark, and will instead focus on a new type of data centre used for AI, Reuters reports.
The owner of Facebook and WhatsApp had been adding three facilities to the two it operates in the city, but only one will be completed, the company said yesterday.
Work on the two halted centres began in August but Meta terminated a $343m contract with Per Aarsleff A/S on Tuesday.
A Meta spokesperson told Reuters: “Over the past month, we have announced a number of measures to make us a more streamlined organisation. A significant part of these measures is to shift a larger part of our resources to high-priority growth areas, including a strategic investment in AI.”
He added that traditional data centres house servers for apps such as Facebook and Instagram, but the calculations needed for AI required a new generation of centres.
Last month, Meta said it would institute a freeze on recruitment and cut 11,000 jobs, reducing its headcount by 13%, after disappointing results. In July, the company showed its first-ever decline in advertising revenue, and later reported that sales for the third quarter of 2022 had fallen from $29bn to $27.7bn.
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