Meta Prometheus data center, New Albany, Ohio

Meta's Prometheus data center in New Albany, Licking County, Ohio is operating and is meant to be the company's first data center built to run more than one gigawatt of computing power. It sits on a 740-acre campus in the New Albany International Business Park, built by Sidecat LLC, a Meta affiliate, where Meta has had a presence since 2017. New Albany counts more than 40 data center facilities run by 15 companies.

Neighbors can already hear it. In July 2026 the city was told about periodic noise from the campus after a temporary sound wall came down as construction neared completion, and the city and Meta agreed it had come down too soon. Meta put up a temporary wall along Morse Road, began turning up its cooling fans gradually instead of all at once, and is installing silencers while looking with the city at landscaped berms or a permanent sound wall.

Much of Prometheus's power will not come from the electric grid. The Ohio Power Siting Board approved a 200 megawatt gas plant on the north side of Morse Road in June 2025, called Socrates South, built by Williams and Co. and fed directly by two 24-inch pipelines. The $1.6 billion plant is expected to reach two generation sites of 200 megawatts each at full build-out, with state filings projecting completion by the third quarter of 2026.

Ohio regulators approved an AEP Ohio rate structure on July 9, 2025 requiring large data centers to pay for at least 85 percent of their contracted power every month, after AEP Ohio warned it will take years to build the grid infrastructure central Ohio's data centers need. Central Ohio residential customers could still pay about $36 more a month by 2027 in combined electric, gas and water bills if pending rate increases are approved.

Meta has since bought another 429 acres in New Albany and Jersey Township near Prometheus, signaling more investment in the area.