Meta is making some big changes to its data center plans

Meta has taken the lid off its 2022 end-of-year finances (opens in new tab), uncovering a reasonably small 1% drop in annual revenue compared with the year prior, at a time when other companies are reporting significant losses.

The company explained a number of decisions it took to “pursue greater efficiency and to realign [its] business and strategic priorities”, which included a heavy review of its facilities that saw it open up subleases, early terminate, and even abandon a number of its offices.

The report also details the layoffs that affected around 11,000 of its workers, but it’s the company’s plans for its data centers that are likely to be most talked about.

It said that it would “pivot” toward a next-generation design which would mean canceling a number of its existing projects in the process.

In a follow-up call (opens in new tab) regarding its end-of-year report, CFO, Susan Li, explained that the new architecture is designed to be “more flexible” when it comes to accommodating various workloads, not AI and non-AI.

Li said: “That flexibility means that with this new data center architecture we can also optimize our approach to building data centers more efficiently.”

The phased approach that Meta hopes to take will see it building data centers with less initial capacity commitment, but with the space and flexibility to grow as needed.

Moreover, higher-density racks and more efficient servers will allow its campuses to reduce their footprints, helping to cut both costs and environmental implications such as emissions.

Elsewhere in the business, things are looking promisingly healthy as other companies battle with tough economic headwinds. Facebook’s daily active users increased 4% to top two billion, while overall headcount is also reported to have increased despite its mass layoffs.

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