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On a massive, 2,250-acre site about 250 miles north of New Orleans, hundreds of construction workers and tons of heavy equipment are turning former soybean fields into what will be the largest data center in the Western Hemisphere. And in the process, officials say, they are transforming Louisiana’s economy.
“It put us on a scale that has a lot of people, not just domestically, but internationally, sort of rethinking Louisiana,” Secretary of Economic Development Susan Bourgeois told CNBC.
, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced in December that it had chosen Louisiana as the site for its largest data center to date — a $10 billion hub for its rapidly growing artificial intelligence operations. The announcement set off the public phase of a sprawling, real world experiment in the promise and the peril of data centers — which have become among the most sought-after trophies in the battle between the states for business.
Data centers are essentially giant collections of computer servers, which are needed to process enormously complex operations for things like artificial intelligence and data storage. They typically take up massive spaces and use huge amounts of power and water, but they employ very few people. Meta’s newest data center will ultimately create just 500 permanent jobs, though employment will briefly swell to about 5,000 during construction. Nonetheless, Meta found itself with no shortage of suitors willing to meet its demands.
