Meta announced Monday that its data center located in Richland Parish, Louisiana will grow to a compute capacity of 5 gigawatts, a massive scale-up designed to power the social media giant’s push into artificial intelligence.
Since construction began in December 2024, Louisiana-based businesses have already been awarded more than $1.6 billion in contracts tied to the project, according to the company.
Here is a closer look at the key details of the expansion:
The data center growth represents an investment of more than $50 billion in the Richland Parish area — a figure that U.S. President Donald Trump had referenced last year when discussing the project’s expected cost.
As part of the expansion, Meta says it intends to put over $1 billion toward upgrading local infrastructure, including improvements to roads, water systems, and wastewater facilities in the surrounding region.
Meta joins other major technology companies in aggressively funneling billions of dollars into AI-focused data centers and computing infrastructure, as the demand for that capacity continues to grow faster than the industry can keep up.
Looking further ahead, the company has committed to investing $600 billion in U.S. infrastructure and job creation over the next three years, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes forward with ambitious plans centered on AI agent technologies.
