With the support of preferential tax policies, Meta’s total investment in Louisiana data center will reach 50 billion US dollars
Meta announced that the Hyperion ultra-large data center cluster located in Richland County, Louisiana, is planned to have a total power of 5 GW and a total investment of over US$500 billion; The investment is significantly higher than the $270 billion disclosed last October. At that time, Meta established a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital to be responsible for the construction and operation of the project; Other cloud giants are vying to land in various states and use local tax exemptions and preferential energy policies to seize the dividends of AI computing power construction. Meta is at the construction site of its planned 5-gigawatt Hyperion data center in Richland County, Louisiana, on January 9, 2026. Relying on the generous support policies issued by the Louisiana state government, Meta's Hyperion supercomputing data center project located in rural areas of the state has significantly expanded its scale and total investment. Meta posted on its official blog on Monday that this facility, located in Richland County, will become Meta's largest data center in the world upon completion, with a planned computing capacity of 5 gigawatts and an overall investment of over US$500 billion. In October last year, the official investment amount was only US$270 billion; at that time, Meta and Blue Owl Capital formed a joint venture to build and operate the project, with an initial planning of only 2 GW of computing power. Meta is promoting the layout of hundreds of billions of dollars in AI computing power infrastructure. Hyper-scale cloud vendors such as Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon are all seizing on the tax rebates and exclusive energy cooperation preferential policies launched by states to compete for the implementation of the AI industry. At the end of 2024, Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill: Data centers completed before 2029 can enjoy sales tax exemptions for up to 20 years to attract Meta investment. Landry will hold a news conference in Baton Rouge on Monday. Landry said in an interview last year: "I am a businessman. This comprehensive support package is generally positive. For local governments and state finances, the final book benefits are the key, and the other details are irrelevant." In order to build sufficient supporting facilities for AI computing power and meet market demand, Meta chose to significantly expand the capacity of the project. Previously, Alexander Wang, the general manager of Meta AI and director of the Super Intelligence Laboratory, launched two blockbuster models, driving the company's stock price to its best week since the beginning of 2024. Investors have been expecting Meta to realize profitable returns from its huge investment in AI. "All electricity, water and supporting infrastructure costs required to operate the data center will be fully borne by the company and will not be passed on to local residents," Meta said in a blog post on Monday. Since the Louisiana project began in December 2024, Meta has issued work orders totaling more than $1.6 billion to local companies, the company said. Meta said: "After this expansion, we will invest an additional US$1 billion to upgrade local public infrastructure, covering roads, water supply and sewage treatment systems." No new financial cooperation investors have been announced for this expansion. The initial estimated total investment in the project was only US$100 billion. About half a year later, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a Facebook post that the supercomputing cluster named Hyperion "will gradually expand to 5 gigawatts of computing power within a few years." Unlike traditional data centers, supercomputing clusters deploy graphics cards and other cutting-edge hardware adapted to AI computing at a high density. Zuckerberg wrote: "Meta Super Intelligence Laboratory will have the industry's top computing power reserve, and the per capita scientific research computing power will be far ahead of the entire industry." A Meta spokesperson revealed that the Hyperion project is expected to complete the construction of 2 GW of computing power in 2030, but there is no clear timeframe for completion of the entire 5 GW.