Data centers in Rutherford County, North Carolina: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Rutherford County has been home to one of North Carolina's older large data center campuses for more than a decade. Facebook, now Meta, broke ground on its first North Carolina data center in Forest City in November 2010, and the site opened in 2012. A later expansion added a 480,000-square-foot building and more than $200 million of investment, keeping more than 125 full-time jobs. County Commission Chairman Brian King called Meta part of "the backbone of our growth strategy."

By the standard of today's newer AI campuses, Forest City is modest: WUNC reported the facility used about 30 megawatts of power and 4 million gallons of water in 2024, well under the site's full capacity, which has not been published. Town Manager Janet Mason, who called Meta an excellent neighbor that helped the town after Hurricane Helene, said: "We were shocked at how little water they used, because I think we were hoping to sell a little bit more water to them." She said the data center did not bring many jobs after construction, nor many of the problems now tied to newer projects.

No new data center proposal, vote or moratorium has surfaced in Rutherford County since Meta's campus opened.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.