Gov. Jeff Landry and Meta executives formally announced Wednesday that the company would build its largest artificial intelligence data center in rural northeast Louisiana, promising what Landry said would bring a “transformation generational” to the state and the region.
At 4 million square feet, the project to be built at the publicly owned Franklin Farms megasite in Holly Ridge, Richland Parish, will be more than four times the size of Meta’s other data centers. Meta is the parent company of Facebook.
Meta’s $10 billion investment will be the largest in Louisiana history, Landry said.
“Today, Louisiana begins a new chapter,” Landry said Wednesday during an announcement at the Rayville Civic Center, the seat of Richland Parish. “We are creating new jobs and economic growth on a scale unimaginable before this year. This makes our state a leader in innovation and technology.”
Kevin Janda, director of Meta, said the data center “will play a central role in advancing Meta (artificial intelligence) efforts.”
Janda told USA Today Network that the data center would be the “newest and largest” in the company’s global infrastructure and would “connect billions of people around the world.”
He said the center is expected to be operational in summer 2028, but work has already started on the site, which has been agricultural land for a century.
The Meta data center will create approximately 500 permanent jobs averaging more than $80,000 in annual salaries and 5,000 construction jobs.
The project depends on Entergy Louisiana building three new natural gas plants to power the data center – two near the Meta site and another north of Baton Rouge.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission must approve Entergy’s new plants, but its members showed full support for the project at their most recent meeting. “I’m 1,000 percent for it,” Commissioner Foster Campbell said at the Nov. 20 meeting.
Entergy President Phillip May said Meta’s project “will shape the future of the region and the state for years to come.” Louisiana will be seen differently…as an unprecedented technology hub.”
“This is what dreams are made of,” said Louisiana Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who did not vote Wednesday to attend the event in her home parish that is part of her 5th Congressional District.
Republican state Rep. Francis Thompson, the longest-serving lawmaker in Louisiana history, said the project would impact every corner of his home parish. “Richland Parish deserves this,” he said.
Democratic Sen. Katrina Jackson of Monroe, about 30 miles west of the project, praised the governor and Legislature for getting the project started. “It was a unified effort,” she said.
More:Meta and Facebook parent Entergy clear early regulatory hurdles for massive data center in Louisiana
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network in Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.