Gov. Jeff Landry and other Louisiana leaders on Monday cheered the announcement that Facebook parent the size of its mammoth Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, as the scale of the investment — and what it could mean for the state — came into greater focus.
At a news conference hours after the tech giant released details of its planned expansion, Landry, who has aggressively courted new industrial development in the state, championed it as a moment that “Louisiana has been waiting for.”
“We’re building a foundation for the next generation of American prosperity,” he said during a presentation that included remarks from Meta executives and some Richland Parish leaders who welcomed the expansion.
Meta will now spend $50 billion on Hyperion, up from $10 billion just 18 months ago. Its footprint has more than doubled to roughly five square miles. And its computing power has doubled, making it one of the fastest, most sophisticated and power hungry data centers planned to date.
The project also will take longer to build and come online, meaning more workers will move into the area and more permanent jobs will eventually be created, even as concerns remain about power, water usage and the return on the state's investments via tax breaks.
Among the largest in U.S.
Hyperion will be one of the first 5 gigawatt data centers U.S., and only a handful of others are in the planning stages or under construction. Oracle and Open AI are building a more expensive data center in the desert of New Mexico with a $165 billion price tag, but it’s roughly the same size as Hyperion and, for now at least, is a planned 2.5 gigawatt facility.
Since the project broke ground in January 2025, it has fueled a boom in Richland Parish, a tiny rural community of 20,000 full-time residents. Richland Parish Assessor Lee Brown has seen it in property tax collections, which he estimates will be up by 30% overall by years end compared to 2025, rising to $28 million or so from $22 million.
“You always want more taxpayers, not people paying more taxes,” he said in an interview Monday. “This gives us more taxpayers.”
Meanwhile, Richland Parish Schools Superintendent Sheldon Jones said that since the data center groundbreaking, Richland Parish has worked closely with Meta. Many teachers in Richland Parish got $50,000 bonuses this year owing to a short-term increase in tax revenues fueled by the project.
“Meta’s presence has made a tangible difference in our classrooms,” he said. “This partnership is directly strengthening the educational experience for Richland Parish.”
Power concerns
Still, amid the staggering spending numbers and hopes from many local leaders and residents, there are also concerns. Some residents, advocacy groups and academics have raised questions about the impact of the projects on the environment and utility rates, the quality of life in the rural communities where they are located and whether big data centers can deliver long-term, sustainable economic growth.
“The academic research, peer-reviewed research has not been as optimistic about the benefit of data centers and job creation as elected officials are,” said Gary Wagner, an economist at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Landry acknowledged that massive data center projects fueling the global artificial intelligence race bring challenges related to water usage and electricity rates. But he said the Meta project will enable Louisiana to strengthen its aging grid.
“It’s easy to sell fear,” Landry said. “We’re giving hope. We’re giving opportunity.”
According to documents filed earlier this year with the Louisiana Public Service Commission, Entergy will build seven new natural gas plants to power the Meta data center in addition to three already under construction.
Meta officials said the company is paying the full cost to build the plant and to pay for what it consumes.
“What was announced today from a Meta perspective was already run through the PSC and filed for by Entergy months ago,” said Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois during the news conference Monday.
Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said the company is taking an “all-of-the above” approach to meet the demands of the project.
That includes the 10 power plants, six of which will be on-site near Meta’s facility, he said. Entergy is also putting in 760 megawatts of batteries, increasing output at its existing nuclear plants and building 4,000 megawatts of solar power, he said.
Those plans for power generation will “cover the entirety of the scale” of the $50 billion project, create additional power beyond Meta’s needs, and improve the reliability of the grid, May said.
Meta also has said it will try to hire as many locals for permanent jobs as possible. To that end, it donated $5 million to the local community college system to help students with scholarships for job training programs.
While elected officials have largely welcomed the project, residents have often voiced optimism coupled with worries about what might be ahead. Shelbie Stephenson, who runs a food truck next to the construction site, said her business has tripled this year and she welcomes whatever Meta brings.
“But I know a lot of people who are really concerned about what it is doing to the quality of life here,” she said. “I’m like, ‘It’s change and it’s here. You have to embrace it.”
On the radar
For now, there are still questions about whether that short-term prosperity will be sustained through permanent jobs and spinoff industries, according to some economists and consultants.
Wagner said studies have shown little long-term growth in states that have subsidized data centers, though the boom is happening so quickly there still isn't a long record that economists and academics can look to.
“Evidence is weak at best that economic development incentives for data centers help income and job creation,” he said.
“It’s hard to say, though, because data centers are so new,” Wagner added. “We just don’t have a lot of data that looks 10 years out.”
Still, it appears that Meta’s investment has landed Louisiana on the radar of tech companies and real estate developers racing to build AI data centers, a construction boom expected to exceed $700 billion alone this year across the U.S.
Earlier this year, Amazon Web services announced plans for a significant, though much smaller AI data center, in Bossier Parish. That's proof, Bourgeois said at the time, that Meta was helping attract other mega investments to the state.
Michael Gucke, an economist with Constructconnect, a consultant to data center builders, said Louisiana’s regulatory environment, abundance of land and well-developed natural gas infrastructure are factors that make Louisiana attractive to companies like Meta and Amazon.
Those advantages come as states on the East Coast like Virginia, which have had data centers for two decades, are running out of land and encountering greater pushback because of worries about water shortages, utility rate increases and other environmental concerns.
“Louisiana wasn’t in the game in the past,” Gucke said. “But this is a forward-looking business and Louisiana is in the game now because these companies are looking to the future.”