A rural Louisiana parish best known for farmland and quiet roads is about to host one of the largest AI projects ever attempted. Meta's price tag for it: $27 billion.
The facility is named Hyperion. When it's done, it will be Meta's biggest data center anywhere.
The Scale Of The Bet
The site sits in Holly Ridge, a town in Richland Parish about 260 miles northwest of New Orleans. It covers 4 million square feet on 2,250 acres of former farmland.
Work started in early 2026, with the data center set to go live by 2030. To power it, Entergy Louisiana is building 10 gas-fired plants.
Six are going in Richland Parish, three in Pointe Coupee, and one in St. Charles. The new substation alone will deliver power equal to more than 1 million homes when it comes online later this year.
Meta has pledged about $300 million for local roads, water, and other systems. State officials estimate more than $2 billion in property taxes over the project's life. Meta has also committed to fund 2.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy and 240 miles of fresh transmission lines.
The governor has called the deal a "new chapter" for the state.
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The Boom And The Bill
Local leaders see a windfall. Richland Parish is set to collect $30 million in property tax from Meta over the next three years.
The parish collected $22 million total last year, so the new money is on a different scale than anything the area has seen. Residents see something more complicated.
The population has jumped by roughly 4,000 in a parish of 20,000. Rents that used to run $600 to $700 a month are now closer to $2,500, pushing some longtime renters out.
There's also the energy question. The Alliance for Affordable Energy, a utility watchdog, has warned that Entergy customers could end up holding the bag if Meta ever walks away. Entergy says Meta is on the hook for the $2.5 billion in costs that would otherwise hit customers.
What To Watch
Meta's AI capex (capital spending) is now visible from space. For investors, the question is whether the returns ever justify the spend.
Hyperscaler capex across Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google is on track to top $700 billion this year. Meta alone has guided to $125 to $145 billion in capex for 2026, with Hyperion the biggest single line item.
Mark Zuckerberg has built his career on big bets early, and this is the biggest one yet. Meta plans to use Hyperion to train its Llama AI models, and at full build-out the campus could deliver up to 5 gigawatts of compute. The next earnings call should give a clearer read on how Wall Street wants Meta to pace the rest of the build.
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