Meta is investing $50 billion in a Louisiana data center for artificial intelligence expansion, marking one of the largest private infrastructure projects in U.S. history. The facility, called Hyperion and located in Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana, is Meta’s largest data center to date and represents a major bet on AI computing capacity.
Meta first announced the project in December 2024, committing $10 billion for the initial build. President Donald Trump disclosed the $50 billion total cost in August 2025 during a cabinet meeting, signaling the scale of Meta’s ambitions. The facility spans 2,250 acres and will eventually feature a 4 million square-foot campus.
The data center is designed to support Meta’s Superintelligence Lab and will deliver over 2 gigawatts of compute capacity by 2030, with the potential to scale up to 5 gigawatts—equivalent to the power output of multiple nuclear units or a large regional power grid. In October 2025, Meta entered a joint venture with funds managed by Blue Owl Capital to finance, build, and operate the facility, targeting up to $27 billion in total development costs.
To support the massive power demands, Meta reached an agreement with Entergy Louisiana to fund new energy infrastructure, including 10 natural gas-fired power plants and 240 miles of transmission lines. Meta will also invest more than $300 million in local infrastructure improvements including roads and water systems. Since breaking ground in December 2024, Meta has contracted more than $875 million with Louisiana businesses.
The project reflects the broader AI infrastructure race among tech giants. Meta’s data center budget has grown substantially—from $28 billion in 2024 to about $70 billion in 2025, with further increases expected in 2026. The Louisiana facility is part of a global expansion that includes a $13 billion data center in Alberta, Canada announced in July 2026, and a $9 billion facility in Canada, underscoring Meta’s commitment to securing computing power for its AI initiatives.
Construction began in late 2024 and is expected to continue through 2030. The Hyperion campus is positioned in Holly Ridge, an unincorporated community in one of Louisiana’s poorest parishes, and is expected to create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions, along with significant local tax revenue.
Sources
- Reuters — Confirmed Meta’s $50 billion Louisiana AI data center cost announced by President Trump in August 2025
- Bloomberg — Reported Meta’s Louisiana data center plans and the $50 billion investment figure
- Meta Data Centers — Official announcement of the Richland Parish facility as Meta’s largest data center
- Louisiana Economic Development — Confirmed Meta’s December 2024 announcement and the $875 million in Louisiana business contracts
- Meta (about.fb.com) — Reported one-year progress and economic impact of the Richland Parish data center
- TechCrunch — Reported Mark Zuckerberg’s confirmation that Hyperion will scale up to 5GW
- IEEE Spectrum — Technical details on the 5GW capacity and GPU requirements for Hyperion
- Engineering News-Record — Reported Meta’s agreement with Entergy Louisiana for power infrastructure funding
