Meta is doubling down on its Louisiana AI data center

Meta announced that it is supercharging its Louisiana data center, known as Hyperion.The project has led to year-end bonuses of up to $50,000 for local teachers, Meta said.The campus will now grow to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity and cost more than $50 billion.Meta is scaling up what was already slated to become its largest AI data center, a Louisiana campus that the tech giant says has fueled "life-changing returns" for local teachers and businesses.The company behind Facebook and Instagram said in a blog post on Monday that the Richland Parish data center, known as Hyperion, will now grow to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, bringing the project's cost to more than $50 billion.The announcement offers a new data point for Wall Street investors watching Meta closely for updates on its AI spending plans. The company's capital expenditures have ballooned in the last two years, largely due to AI infrastructure costs.As part of its announcement, Meta touted the project's local economic impact, saying that the increased tax revenues tied to the data center have recently led to year-end bonuses of up to $50,000 for Richland Parish teachers.That's 400% higher than what teachers received last year in the rural Louisiana parish that's home to about 20,000 people, according to Meta.Sheldon Jones, the parish's school district superintendent, said in a statement shared by Meta that the influx of money has been "life-altering for our teachers and their families" and was "transforming our schools.""Last year, our teachers received a $10,000 bonus, this year that check was over $50,000," Jones said, adding, "Meta's investment has made Richland Parish a destination for education as well as industry."Jones did not immediately respond to a request by Business Insider for further comment.The Hyperion project, according to Meta, is among the largest investments in AI infrastructure worldwide.Meta said in its Monday post that local Louisiana businesses have received more than $1.6 billion in contracts from the company since it broke ground on the 4 million-square-foot site in December 2024."With this expansion, we will be investing over $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water and wastewater systems," said Meta.It added that the company "pays the full costs of the energy, water, and related infrastructure the data center uses so consumers aren't paying the cost."The project's expansion marks a dramatic escalation from last year when Meta and investment firm Blue Owl Capital put the data center's price tag at about $27 billion with plans for more than 2 gigawatts of compute capacity.Once operational, Meta says the data center will create more than 1,000 jobs.While Meta has highlighted the project's economic benefits, the rapid buildout of AI data centers by Big Tech has become a flashpoint, with critics raising widespread concerns about energy demand, water consumption, and the strain on local infrastructure.Read the original article on Business Insider