Louisiana has drawn two very large AI data center commitments in the past two years. Meta now says it will put more than $50 billion into a campus in Richland Parish, and Amazon has raised its northwest Louisiana plan to $18 billion. Both come with utility funded power deals, which is the part worth understanding.
This post sets out what the Louisiana state economic development agency and the companies have said, labels each figure by source, and flags what remains unconfirmed. Most of it comes from the state's own announcements, which are promotional by nature, so the numbers are best read as company and state statements, not independent audits.
Key numbers at a glance
- Meta, Richland Parish: more than $50 billion committed, announced 13 July 2026 (Louisiana Economic Development, LED).
- Meta campus size: nearly 10 million square feet and 5 GW of IT capacity (LED, 13 July 2026).
- Meta jobs: about 7,500 construction jobs at peak and about 1,000 operational jobs; LED estimates 1,900 indirect jobs (LED, 13 July 2026).
- Meta power package with Entergy Louisiana: seven new natural gas plants, three grid scale batteries, possible nuclear development and other purchased power (LED, 13 July 2026).
- Meta service term: 20 years, with Meta paying the full cost of the infrastructure needed for the data center, per Entergy Louisiana's chief executive as quoted by LED.
- Meta customer assistance: $215 million contributed to Entergy's Power to Care bill assistance and efficiency programs (LED).
- Amazon, northwest Louisiana: planned investment raised to $18 billion on 18 August 2026, from an initial $12 billion announced in February 2026 (LED).
- Amazon campuses: three, across Caddo and Bossier parishes, including a new one at Resilient Technology Park in Shreveport (LED).
- Amazon jobs: up to 750 direct and 1,784 indirect across all three campuses (LED estimates); up to 2,250 construction jobs expected by STACK Infrastructure.
- Amazon water infrastructure: up to $400 million planned for public water systems across the three campuses (LED, 18 August 2026).
- Statewide: LED says Louisiana has secured over $150 billion in investment since 2024 (13 July 2026 release) and nearly $160 billion since the governor took office (18 August 2026 release). The two statements use different starting points and are not the same measure.
What Meta announced
On 13 July 2026, Louisiana Economic Development published a release saying Meta commits more than $50 billion to its data center in Holly Ridge, in Richland Parish, in the northeast of the state. The release says the campus expands to nearly 10 million square feet and 5 gigawatts of IT capacity, and describes it as home to Hyperion, Meta's largest AI training cluster and the largest facility in Meta's global fleet. The original project was announced in December 2024.
Two terms need explaining. IT capacity is the electrical power available to the computing equipment itself, not counting cooling and other overhead. It is the figure that gets quoted when people compare data centers. A gigawatt (GW) is a thousand megawatts, so 5 GW is a very large number: the US Energy Information Administration reported on 15 October 2026 that the PJM grid operator set a summer peak of 162.6 GW, and the Texas grid operator ERCOT set 91.1 GW. Five GW of IT capacity at one campus is therefore not a small fraction of those regional peaks, although the figures are not directly comparable, because one is a campus design capacity and the others are measured grid peaks. The comparison is offered only for scale.
LED estimates the project supports about 7,500 construction jobs at peak and about 1,000 operational jobs, plus 1,900 indirect jobs, for more than 2,900 new opportunities in the region. The ratio between construction and permanent jobs is typical of data centers: the building phase employs many people for a limited time, and the running phase employs far fewer. The Virginia legislature's research arm described the same pattern in its study of data centers there, finding that most of the economic benefit comes from construction rather than ongoing operations. That finding is about Virginia, not Louisiana, and should not be assumed to carry over exactly.
The power deal in plain terms
The most important part of the Meta announcement is how the electricity is supplied. According to the LED release, Meta and Entergy Louisiana have a new agreement that will fund seven new natural gas plants, three grid scale batteries, potential nuclear development including increasing output at the Waterford 3 plant, and other purchased power. A grid scale battery stores electricity when it is cheap or plentiful and releases it when demand is high.
Entergy expects the agreement to deliver more than $2 billion in customer savings, compared with a figure of $650 million that had been announced before, according to the release. That is a utility projection, and it depends on assumptions about costs and demand that the release does not detail. It should be read as a claim by the company, not an outcome.
The release also quotes Phillip May, chief executive of Entergy Louisiana, saying that Meta is paying the full cost of the infrastructure needed to support its data center during the 20 year term. Two further commitments appear in the release: Meta will contribute $215 million to Entergy's Power to Care program, which provides bill assistance and residential energy efficiency, and Meta committed to fund up to 2.5 GW of clean, renewable energy.
Why does this matter? Because the central public worry about large data centers is who pays. A utility builds power plants and lines, and the cost is normally recovered from customers. If one customer needs enormous new capacity, other customers could end up carrying part of the cost, especially if the project is cancelled or uses less than expected. A contract in which the customer pays the full cost of the infrastructure over a long term is the response. The Ohio regulator took a similar approach with a rule requiring an 85% minimum payment for up to 12 years; see Ohio's AEP data center tariff explained. The structures differ: Ohio set a rule by regulatory order for a whole class of customers, while the Louisiana description is of a specific agreement between one customer and one utility.
What the LED release does not say is also informative. It does not give the terms in detail, such as the minimum payments, the exit provisions, or how the costs of the gas plants are divided. It does not name specific state tax incentives or abatements for the Meta project. Readers who want those details would need the filings made with the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which this post did not review.
What Amazon announced
On 18 August 2026, LED reported that Amazon added $6 billion, raising its planned northwest Louisiana data center investment to $18 billion. The first $12 billion was announced in February 2026. There are three campuses, spanning Caddo and Bossier parishes, with the third at Resilient Technology Park in Shreveport. LED lists a mix of jobs: the expansion alone adds 210 direct jobs and an estimated 499 indirect jobs, while across all three campuses the totals are up to 750 direct and 1,784 indirect, both LED estimates. STACK Infrastructure, which is involved in the build, expects up to 2,250 construction jobs.
Unlike the Meta release, this one names an incentive. LED says Amazon is participating in the state's Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption. A sales and use tax exemption means the company does not pay the usual state sales tax on qualifying purchases, which for a data center are mostly servers and other equipment, so the exemption can be worth a great deal. The release does not say how much the exemption is worth for this project, so no figure is given here. For how such an exemption can be measured, the Virginia legislative study found that Virginia's data center sales tax exemption saved the industry $928 million in the 2023 fiscal year; that is a Virginia number and is not a Louisiana estimate.
Power comes from Southwestern Electric Power Company, known as SWEPCO. LED says SWEPCO is working with Amazon to fully fund the new energy infrastructure and grid upgrades so that costs are not passed to existing ratepayers. As with Meta, that is a statement of intent in a state release, and the terms were not published there.
Water and cooling
Water is the other issue communities raise. Data centers need to remove heat, and one common method evaporates water. The Amazon release says the three campuses will use air cooling most of the year and water cooling only above about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which Amazon expects to be less than 13% of the year. It also says Amazon plans up to $400 million in public water infrastructure for all three campuses and will fund the required water and wastewater improvements. Amazon reports cooling technology that cuts mechanical energy use by up to 46%, and 12% more compute power per system, though the release does not define the baseline for either number.
For Meta, the release says the company plans to return 100% of the facility's water consumption to local watersheds and will invest in wetland restoration and water infrastructure. These are plans, and the release does not give volumes. Readers who need to judge water impact would want the actual permits and measured use once the sites run.
The state's role
Governor Jeff Landry's name appears throughout the releases. The Meta release says an executive order, numbered JML-26-058, established the Louisiana Ratepayer and Community Protection Framework. The Amazon release refers to the Louisiana Ratepayer and Community Protection Initiative, established in June 2026. These may describe the same effort under different names. The releases do not say, and they do not set out what the order requires. What can be said is that the state is presenting ratepayer protection as part of the pitch, which tells you that cost shifting is a live political concern.
The state is also candid about the competition. LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois is quoted in the Meta release as saying that capital flows where it is treated the best. That is a plain statement of how states compete for projects: through land, power, tax treatment and speed.
Local opposition is a national pattern
Louisiana's releases are upbeat, and they come from the people who want the projects. A fuller picture includes the pushback seen in other places. Data Center Watch, an organisation that tracks opposition and describes itself through a newsletter and a contact address but gives limited detail on its methods, reports in its Q2 2026 summary, covering April to June 2026, that nearly $68 billion of projects were blocked or delayed and that at least 45 projects were affected in the quarter. It also says that regulatory scrutiny expanded across 49 states and that 30 statehouses introduced data center legislation, resolutions or executive actions. The summary does not explain its methodology or give a publication date, so treat these as one tracker's figures, not an official count.
Its pages list specific local cases elsewhere, such as a borough in Pennsylvania voting 5 to 0 to deny a campus in March 2026, and a town in North Carolina moving toward a one year moratorium after a project was withdrawn. They do not describe Louisiana opposition, and this post makes no claim about it.
How to read announcements like these
A few habits help when reading any big data center announcement. First, separate the headline dollar figure from what has been built. A commitment of tens of billions is spread over years and over phases, and phases can change. Second, separate capacity from load. A campus designed for 5 GW of IT capacity will not draw 5 GW on day one, because servers are installed in stages, and the real draw depends on how busy the equipment is. Third, ask who carries the risk if the project shrinks. The Louisiana releases say the customers fund the infrastructure, but the detailed terms matter more than the summary. Fourth, check the date and the author. A state agency and a company both benefit from a positive story, so the strongest claims are the ones backed by a regulatory filing or a measured result.
What is firm and what is uncertain
Firm, as statements by the state agency and companies: the announced dollar amounts and dates; the campus size and capacity for Meta; the number of Amazon campuses and their parishes; Amazon's participation in the sales and use tax exemption; and the structure of the power arrangements as described.
Uncertain or not yet public: the value of any tax incentive to either project; the detailed contract terms with the utilities; whether the claimed customer savings materialise; the content of the executive order; the real water use once operating; construction schedules; and whether every phase proceeds as announced. All job numbers are estimates. Private company investment figures are announcements, not audited spending.
What to watch next
- Filings at the Louisiana Public Service Commission about the new gas plants and cost allocation.
- The tax exemption's cost to the state, once reported.
- Whether the ratepayer framework becomes a model other states copy.
- Grid operator reports on how much data center load arrives and how fast, such as the peak load records reported by the US Energy Information Administration in October 2026.
- Equipment lead times for transformers and switchgear, covered in a separate post on data center transformers and switchgear.
For a wider look at the economics behind projects of this kind, see how AI data centers are financed and the hyperscaler capex scoreboard. For teams running software inside facilities like these, Safeguard offers SBOM and dependency scanning, with a free scan at https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan.
Quick check
How big is Meta's Richland Parish campus, according to the state?
Louisiana Economic Development says it expands to nearly 10 million square feet and 5 GW of IT capacity, with more than $50 billion committed, as announced on 13 July 2026.
Who pays for the power infrastructure?
The releases say the customers will. Entergy Louisiana's chief executive is quoted saying Meta pays the full cost of the infrastructure over a 20 year term, and the state says SWEPCO is working with Amazon to fully fund its grid upgrades. The detailed contract terms were not published in those releases.
Does the Amazon project get a tax incentive?
LED says Amazon is participating in Louisiana's Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption. The value for this project was not stated.
Sources
- Louisiana Economic Development, Meta commits more than $50 billion for North Louisiana project, 13 July 2026
- Louisiana Economic Development, Amazon grows northwest Louisiana planned investment to $18 billion, 18 August 2026
- Data Center Watch, Q2 2026 report page
- Data Center Watch, home page
- US Energy Information Administration, peak load records, 15 October 2026
- Virginia JLARC, Data Centers in Virginia
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
