ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) — Facebook has officially launched a data center in central Iowa.
The social media giant opened its doors Friday to showcase its 476,000-square-foot facility in Altoona, just outside of Des Moines. A second data center is under construction next door.
The first data center, which is officially online and serving live traffic, houses thousands of refrigerator-sized racks of computer servers, processors, hard drives and other equipment. It has 75 employees.
Facebook would not disclose the price of the first data center, but state officials said last year it was worth nearly $300 million. The state awarded $18 million in tax credits, and Altoona forgo property taxes for 20 years.
The data center is currently just one of four around the world. The others are located in North Carolina, Oregon and Sweden.
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