Meta has put an indefinite pause on the construction of two data centres in Denmark.

The Facebook owner had previously announced plans to open a pair of data centres in Odense, the third largest city in Denmark, but has said that it is refocusing its efforts to focus on a new data centre oriented around artificial intelligence (AI).

Meta’s traditional data centres house servers for services like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The company instead said that calculations required for AI necessitate a new generation of data centres.

The data centres’ construction began in August, but Meta said that it has now terminated its deal with contractor Per Aarsleff. The deal was worth an estimated DKR2.4 billion ($344 million).

In comments to Reuters, Meta spokesperson Peter Münster said: "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 artificial intelligence.”

Last month, Meta announced 11,000 job cuts. These were the first significant job cuts in the company’s 18-year history, and came amid a time of contraction for big tech firms like Google and Amazon who under-delivered on market expectations.

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