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Meta is building its biggest data center ever, and it’s putting it in one of the least expected places: Richland Parish, Louisiana, a rural community where cotton fields outnumber tech campuses by a considerable margin.
The project, dubbed Hyperion, will span 4 million square feet and focus on AI training workloads. Its initial compute capacity is set to exceed 2 gigawatts, with plans to scale up to 5 gigawatts in later phases. The total investment is projected between $10 billion and $27 billion.
What Hyperion actually looks like
Announced in December 2024, the Hyperion campus represents Meta’s most aggressive single-site infrastructure bet to date. The facility is being financed partly through a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital, announced in October 2025, giving Meta access to outside capital to share the financial load.
Meta expects to generate more than 500 direct jobs and over 1,000 indirect positions tied to the facility’s construction and operation.
Within roughly a year of breaking ground, Meta has contracted over $875 million with local businesses.
The water problem and the tax break debate
The most contentious issue centers on water. Hyperion is projected to consume up to 1 billion gallons annually from local aquifers, creating direct competition between AI infrastructure demands and agricultural irrigation needs.
The facility requires significant new power generation infrastructure from Entergy, the regional utility. The total system impact could reach up to 7.5 gigawatts, a figure that would require substantial natural gas infrastructure buildouts.
Louisiana’s government has approved roughly $3.3 billion in tax incentives for the project.
Why this matters beyond Louisiana
The Blue Owl Capital joint venture structure is worth paying attention to. It suggests that even companies with Meta’s cash reserves are looking for creative financing arrangements to spread risk on projects of this magnitude.
The $875 million in local contracts already awarded suggests that the construction boom is delivering on at least some of its promises. Whether that momentum translates into lasting economic development for Richland Parish depends on factors that won’t become clear for years: whether ancillary businesses sprout up around the campus, whether the permanent workforce earns enough to sustain local spending, and whether the water and energy demands create costs that offset the economic gains.
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