Meta has announced it will be investing more than US$ 50 billion to expand its data center operation in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The expansion will see capacity at the facility increase to 5 GW in a bid to accelerate AI development. The social media company will also invest US$ 1 billion into improving the surrounding infrastructure including roads, water, and wastewater systems.
Once the expansion is complete, the Richland Parish Data Center will be the largest in Meta’s fleet and house the company’s multi-gigawatt AI training cluster Hyperion.
“From the beginning, this project has always been about more than building infrastructure — it’s about building alongside the community. The people, workforce and partnership we’ve found in Louisiana have enabled this project to be a cornerstone of our global infrastructure. With more than $1.6 billion already contracted with local companies and thousands of jobs being supported, we’re delivering real economic impact alongside the AI infrastructure that will power the future,” Rachel Peterson, Vice President of Data Centers at Meta, said in a press release.
Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, said that this investment from Meta puts the state at the center of America’s AI future.
“In just two years, we’ve secured more than $150 billion in new investment by creating an environment where companies can move quickly and build at scale. Projects like this don’t just grow our state’s economy, they ensure America continues to lead in the technologies that will define the next generation,” Landry said.
To power the 5 GW expansion, Meta says it is working closely with Entergy, an energy utility company that operates in several states, including Louisiana, to acquire that power. The two firms reached an agreement in March 2026 that would see Meta funding seven new gas-fueled generating plants, three grid-scale batteries, nuclear uprates, and other purchased power.
Building on that agreement, Meta will fund the generation of up to 2.5 GW of clean and renewable energy and will match the data center’s energy use with clean and renewable energy investments. Meta notes that it intends to pay for all the energy, water, and related infrastructure it uses.
This expansion comes on the back of several data center expansion announcements made this year. In March, the company said its El Paso campus in Texas, a 1 GW project, would be powered by a 366 MW array of modular gas generators. The company is also investing more than US$ 10 billion in a data center project in Lebanon, Indiana. That facility will handle both AI workloads and core Meta products and is designed to house 1 GW of compute capacity.
Earlier this month, w.media reported that Meta was investing US$ 9.18 billion into a 1 GW AI data center in Alberta, Canada, the first Meta data center in the country.
All of these investments and expansions are in service of not only shoring up Meta’s operations, but also advancing its AI aspirations. The company said in April that capital expenditure for the year could go as high as US$ 145 billion, increasing from an upper figure of US$ 135 billion announced in January 2026 and nearly doubling the US$ 72 billion the company spent in 2025.