Facebook-parent Meta has shared a detailed update on its Hyperion AI data center project in rural Louisiana. The company says the plant will reach 5 GW of capacity and cost over $50 billion. This comes after Louisiana decided to offer sales tax exemptions for up to 20 years on new data centers constructed by 2029, an initiative passed in late 2024 as the state tried to lure Meta’s investment.The company said Hyperion, located in Richland Parish, will become Meta’s largest data center. The project was originally planned as a 2 GW campus, with an estimated cost that later increased through successive project updates.
Meta outlines expansion plans for Hyperion AI data center
In a blog post, Meta said construction of the Louisiana facility began in December 2024 and that local businesses have since received more than $1.6 billion in contracts related to the project.The company also said that it “pays the full costs of the energy, water, and related infrastructure the data center uses so consumers aren’t paying the cost.”“With this expansion, we will be investing over $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water and wastewater systems,” Meta added.According to the company, Hyperion is expected to reach 2 GW of computing capacity by 2030, although it has not provided a timeline for completing the full 5 GW project.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously wrote that the Hyperion supercluster would be “able to scale up to 5GW over several years.”“Meta Superintelligence Labs will have industry-leading levels of compute, and by far the greatest compute per researcher,” he added.Unlike conventional data centers, AI superclusters are designed to house large numbers of graphics processing units (GPUs) and related hardware used for artificial intelligence workloads.
How Louisiana backed the project with long-term tax incentives
Louisiana is exempting qualifying data centers from sales taxes for 20 years, opening the door for Meta’s data center expansion plans. Jeff Landry, the state’s governor, signed the legislation into law in 2024. It is part of a state drive to attract huge investments in AI infrastructure.Meta’s Louisiana project was originally developed under the code name “Project Sucre” through subsidiary Laidley LLC, which employed confidentiality agreements in early negotiations before the company’s involvement was made public, according to earlier reports.Meta has said the project will create more than 5,000 skilled trade jobs during peak construction and around 500 permanent operational jobs after the facility becomes operational.The company has even stated that it intends to hire locally where possible while continuing infrastructure investments in Richland Parish. Meanwhile, discussions surrounding the project have also included questions about electricity demand, public incentives, environmental impacts and long-term infrastructure requirements as AI companies expand data center construction across the US.