Meta Is Pouring Billions More Into Louisiana—but Who Pays for the Power?

RICHLAND PARISH, La. (BAMM Network) — Meta’s rapidly expanding artificial-intelligence data center in northeast Louisiana is being promoted as a transformational investment for one of the state’s more economically challenged regions. But as the project grows in size, so do questions about who will receive its benefits—and who will ultimately bear its costs.

A woman walks by the Meta Lab in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Cole

Meta announced in July that its planned Hyperion campus in Richland Parish will expand to as much as five gigawatts of computing capacity, pushing the company’s projected investment in Louisiana beyond $50 billion.

The revised plan is substantially larger than the $10 billion development announced in December 2024. State and company officials now project the expanded campus will support more than 7,500 construction workers at peak development and approximately 1,000 permanent operational jobs once completed.

Gov. Jeff Landry has described the development as a historic opportunity to establish northeast Louisiana as a major technology and artificial-intelligence hub.

When the project was first announced, Landry said Meta’s investment would create high-paying jobs, generate economic activity and bring new opportunities to a rural region that has struggled to attract development on this scale.

“Meta’s investment establishes the region as an anchor in Louisiana’s rapidly expanding tech sector, revitalizes one of our state’s beautiful rural areas, and creates opportunities for Louisiana workers to fill high-paying jobs of the future,” Landry said in the state’s original project announcement.

Meta says it is also investing in local roads, water systems, schools, nonprofit organizations and workforce development. The company reports providing more than $1 million in community grants to area schools and organizations and has promoted a workforce academy intended to train people for skilled construction and data-center jobs.

The company has also said it makes efforts to hire local contractors and suppliers during construction.

For supporters, those commitments represent a rare opportunity to bring sustained investment to northeast Louisiana while strengthening infrastructure, expanding the local tax base and creating career pathways in a growing industry.

However, the project’s enormous demand for electricity has made it a statewide test of whether large technology developments can be structured without shifting costs onto ordinary utility customers.

Entergy Louisiana plans a massive expansion of the region’s energy system to serve Meta’s campus. The plans include seven natural gas-fired power plants capable of producing more than 5,200 megawatts, new high-voltage transmission lines, battery storage and upgrades involving the state’s nuclear generation capacity.

Entergy and Meta announced a revised agreement in March requiring the technology company to pay its full cost of electric service. Entergy says the agreement will prevent existing customers from subsidizing Meta’s operations and is expected to produce approximately $2 billion in customer savings over 20 years, in addition to $650 million in previously projected benefits.

“Structured to ensure Meta pays its full cost of service, the agreement is expected to deliver approximately $2 billion in customer savings to Entergy Louisiana customers over 20 years,” Entergy said in announcing the revised arrangement.

That agreement represents a significant change from earlier plans that drew criticism from consumer advocates and environmental organizations.

Before the revision, critics questioned whether Meta would cover the fuel, maintenance, transmission and long-term ownership costs associated with infrastructure being built primarily to serve the data center. Concerns were also raised about what would happen if the company reduced its operations or ended its utility agreement before the power plants reached the end of their useful lives.

Although Entergy says the revised contract protects ratepayers, independent scrutiny will remain important as the project expands. The utility’s projected savings depend on assumptions about Meta’s future electricity use, the length of its service commitment, fuel expenses and how infrastructure costs are allocated over several decades.

The power buildout has also raised environmental concerns. The new gas plants will substantially increase Louisiana’s fossil-fuel generating capacity at a time when communities across the state already face significant air-pollution and climate risks.

Meta has committed to matching its electricity consumption with additional renewable-energy development. However, matching demand with renewable generation does not mean the Richland Parish campus will operate exclusively on renewable power. The physical electricity serving the facility will still come from the broader Entergy system, including the newly constructed natural gas plants.

Questions also remain about the public concessions used to attract the project.

Meta qualifies for a statewide sales-tax exemption on eligible data-center equipment and construction materials. The company also negotiated a separate payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Richland Parish officials, which determines how much it will pay locally instead of conventional property taxes.

Supporters argue those incentives helped Louisiana secure a project that could generate economic activity for decades. Critics contend the full value of exemptions and concessions should be measured against the number of permanent jobs, local hiring outcomes, utility risks and environmental costs associated with the development.

The distinction between temporary and permanent employment will be particularly important.

Thousands of skilled workers will be needed during the construction phase, but those jobs will decline as the campus is completed. Meta now projects approximately 1,000 operational positions—double its earlier estimate—but that number remains small compared with the project’s more than $50 billion price tag and massive physical footprint.

The project could still generate additional employment through contractors, suppliers, restaurants, housing and other businesses serving the campus and its workers. Whether those benefits remain concentrated in Richland Parish will depend on how many jobs and contracts go to people and businesses already based in northeast Louisiana.

Meta’s expansion is unquestionably one of the largest private investments in Louisiana history. But investment size alone does not establish public benefit.

The ultimate measure will be whether the project produces durable local employment, strengthens schools and infrastructure, protects existing utility customers and delivers enough economic value to justify the public incentives and environmental demands required to make it possible.

For Louisiana residents, the central question is no longer whether Meta is spending tens of billions of dollars.

It is how much of that investment will remain in the communities helping to power it.