Meta’s 5-gigawatt Hyperion knowledge middle beneath building in Richland Parish, Louisiana, Jan. 9, 2026.
Courtesy of Meta
Meta’s large Hyperion knowledge middle undertaking in rural Louisiana is getting a lot larger and costlier, with an enormous help from the state’s authorities.
The corporate stated in a weblog submit Monday that the positioning in Richland Parish, Louisiana — house to what will likely be Meta’s largest knowledge middle — will likely be a 5 GW facility and price greater than $50 billion. That is increased than the $27 billion determine that was revealed in October, when Meta and Blue Owl Capital shaped a three way partnership to assist with the build-out and administration of the power, initially deliberate as a 2 GW knowledge middle.
As Meta pursues its multi-hundred-billion-dollar synthetic intelligence build-out, the corporate and hyperscaler rivals Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon are benefiting from tax rebates and power offers being supplied by states which are combating to get a bit of the AI growth.
In late 2024, Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into regulation a 20-year gross sales tax exemption for knowledge facilities constructed earlier than 2029 as a part of an effort to court docket Meta within the state, CNBC beforehand reported. Landry is about to host a press occasion on Monday in Baton Rouge.
“I am a enterprise man,” Landry instructed CNBC in an interview final yr. “What we all know is if you take a look at the general complete package deal right here, it is within the black. For native authorities, and the state, and the way you get to the underside line is irrespective to me.”
Meta is increasing the undertaking because it seeks to construct out sufficient AI infrastructure to fulfill demand. The announcement comes after Meta had its greatest week on the inventory market since early 2024 following the launch of two main synthetic intelligence fashions beneath the management of AI chief Alexandr Wang, head of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Buyers have been on the lookout for the corporate to start out exhibiting returns on its outsized AI investments.
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Meta stated in Monday’s submit that the corporate “pays the total prices of the power, water, and associated infrastructure the information middle makes use of so customers aren’t paying the fee.” Since building of the Louisiana knowledge middle started in December 2024, native companies have acquired greater than $1.6 billion in contracts from Meta, the corporate stated.
“With this enlargement, we will likely be investing over $1 billion in native infrastructure enhancements, together with roads, water and wastewater methods,” Meta stated within the submit. The corporate did not announce a monetary companion for the enlargement.
When the undertaking started, the estimated price ticket was $10 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a Fb submit roughly six months later that the supercluster, named Hyperion, could be “capable of scale as much as 5GW over a number of years.” In contrast to conventional knowledge facilities, superclusters are full of graphics processing models and associated cutting-edge {hardware} tailor-made for AI workloads.
“Meta Superintelligence Labs may have industry-leading ranges of compute and by far the best compute per researcher,” Zuckerberg wrote.
A Meta spokesperson instructed CNBC that the Hyperion undertaking ought to attain 2 GW by 2030, however there is no timeline for when the total 5 GW undertaking will likely be accomplished.
