Meta’s Hyperion data centre in rural Louisiana has ballooned from $10bn to more than $50bn in under two years. In a parish of 20,000 people, it has made some locals a fortune and priced others out of their homes.
Meta just made its biggest AI bet bigger. On Monday the company said its Hyperion data centre in Richland Parish, Louisiana, will grow into a 5-gigawatt site costing more than $50bn. It is now Meta’s largest data centre, and one of the biggest AI projects anywhere.
The number is the story. When construction began in December 2024, the price tag was $10bn. By October it was $27bn, CNBC reports, after Meta formed a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital. Now it is past $50bn. The cost has quintupled in under two years.
Richland Parish has about 20,000 people and is one of the poorest in Louisiana. A project this size does not land quietly.
For some, it has been a windfall. Meta says it has contracted more than $1.6bn with local firms and will fund over $1bn in roads, water and wastewater. Scott Holmes, who runs a local charter-bus company, told Meta his fleet grew from 40 coaches to 102. His drivers on site now earn more than $80,000, in a region where the median income is $42,000.
