The Richland Parish Data Center, nicknamed "Hyperion", is a planned artificial intelligence data center by Meta Platforms under-construction along Highway La. 183 in Richland Parish, Louisiana, just outside of Holly Ridge. It is one of a number of "titan clusters" being built in preparation for the emergence of AI superintelligence. Modern technological researchers disagree as to whether or not superintelligence will ever exist, though Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed belief that its creation is inevitable. Initial financing plans provided for at least $27 billion of investment. In July 2026, Meta announced the campus would expand to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, raising planned investment to more than US$50 billion, with roughly 2 GW expected online by 2030 and full build-out around 2032.
History Meta was considering potential locations for their flagship data center in early 2024. Before being announced later in December, the plan was completely secret; meetings held between involved organisations and even government officials could only refer to it by the codename "Project Sucre" to protect it from potential corporate espionage. The data center was first announced on 04 December 2024, though its full scale was yet to be revealed. At first, Meta would not even claim responsibility for it, channelling all of its investments through the secret shell subsidiary Laidley LLC.
We set out looking for a place where we could expand into gigawatts pretty quickly, and really get moving within that community on a large plot of land very quickly. We looked at finding very, very large contiguous plots of land that had access to the infrastructure that we need, the energy that we needed, and could move very, very quickly for us. The Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation, aiming for the facility to be built in its own backyard, negotiated a deal with the government of Louisiana to provide Meta with enormous tax breaks if they agreed to build Hyperion there. The Louisiana legislature responded by passing Act 730, which provides significant tax rebates on the purchase or lease of equipment for building and operating data centers. Meta found the arrangement acceptable, and bought a plot of land from the government. The government also had to further amend its laws to allow Meta to do this, as pre-existing policy forbade purchasing land directly from the government instead of hosting a public auction. The plot of land, originally called Franklin Farms, was purchased from the Franklin family in 2006 by the government, intending for it to be developed into an automotive manufacturing plant. Greater attention was brought to Hyperion when Zuckerberg posted about the project on 14 July 2025 on Threads. The project subsequently caught media attention for its large size, as Zuckerberg's post portrayed the structure superimposed over Manhattan (pictured). The construction site spans 2,250 acres (9.1 km2), with a total planned floor area of 4,000,000 square feet (371612 m2) across the campus. Meta initially reported the construction cost to be over $10 billion, but in October 2025, it announced a partnership with Blue Owl Capital providing for at least $27 billion. In July 2026, Meta announced a further expansion of the project, lifting its total planned investment above $50 billion. A Wall Street Journal investigation showed that although Meta is behind the project, it is owned through Beignet Investors, a special purpose vehicle managed by Blue Owl structured as an 80:20 joint venture where Meta is the minority partner and tenant so that the project is off-balance sheet. The construction is financed through a bond sale; lease payments will provide the cash flows to repay to bondholders. The initial four-year Hyperion lease is irrevocable and starts in 2029, renewable for up to 20 years, with bonds backed by a guarantee for the entire two decades. The company's aggregate initial lease commitment is about $12.3 billion.
Operation The facility is expected to consume up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of computational power, a figure Meta confirmed in July 2026 with roughly 2 GW expected online by 2030 and the full campus completed around 2032. As part of their deal made with Meta, Entergy plans to be able to produce at least 3.8 GW of electricity for the operation.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.


