{"id":760282,"date":"2026-07-13T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760282\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:03:10","slug":"meta-expands-louisiana-data-center-to-5-gigawatts-in-ai-infrastructure-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760282\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta expands Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts in AI infrastructure push"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Founder of Constellation Research Inc. Ray Wang discusses the volatile A.I. tech rally and Meta’s shifting compute strategy on \u2018Making Money.\u2019 \n<\/p>\n

Meta is expanding its massive data center project in Richland Parish, Louisiana, to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, making it one of the largest data centers in history, the company announced<\/a> Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The expansion pushes Meta\u2019s total investment in the region to more than $50 billion, marking one of the biggest AI infrastructure<\/a> investments in the world, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Once operational, the data center is expected to support more than 1,000 jobs. Meta said Louisiana businesses have already received more than $1.6 billion in contracts from the company since it broke ground on the site in December 2024.<\/p>\n

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\"Construction <\/p>\n

Meta said Louisiana businesses have already received more than $1.6 billion in contracts from the company since it broke ground on the site in December 2024. (Meta)<\/p>\n

The tech giant also plans to spend more than $1 billion on local infrastructure upgrades, including roads, water and wastewater systems.<\/p>\n

Meta said the expansion includes an energy agreement expected to save Entergy Louisiana customers more than $2 billion over 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company said it will cover the data center\u2019s energy, water and infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n

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\"Construction <\/p>\n

Meta said the expansion includes an energy agreement expected to save Entergy Louisiana customers more than $2 billion over 20 years. (Meta)<\/p>\n

The project is already reshaping Richland Parish, a rural community of about 20,000 people. Teachers in the parish recently received annual bonuses of more than $50,000, up from $10,000 last year, thanks to increased tax revenue<\/a> tied to the data center.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s life-altering for our teachers and their families, and it’s transforming our schools<\/a>,” Richland Parish School District Superintendent Sheldon Jones said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Jones said Meta\u2019s investment has also helped the district attract stronger teacher candidates.<\/p>\n

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\"Construction <\/p>\n

The company said it will cover the data center\u2019s energy, water and infrastructure costs. (Meta)<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO<\/a><\/p>\n

Meta is also donating $5 million to Louisiana Delta Community College to create scholarships for residents training for data center jobs<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beginning with the class of 2026, all Richland Parish high school graduates will be eligible for full scholarships for data center-related trade programs.<\/p>\n

The scholarship effort comes after Meta announced in June that it is launching America\u2019s Workforce Academy, a new skilled-trades training program with free tuition and guaranteed jobs for graduates.<\/p>\n

FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Founder of Constellation Research Inc. Ray Wang discusses the volatile A.I. tech rally and Meta’s shifting compute strategy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-760282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}