A quiet Louisiana parish is set to become home to the world's largest data center, stirring unease among residents. Tech giant Meta announced Monday it is expanding its massive Hyperion data center in Richland Parish to five gigawatts of computing power, increasing its investment in the project to $50 billion. Local leaders hailed the project, saying it has already boosted the economy and created hundreds of jobs despite still being under construction. Governor Jeff Landry said the data center construction has ignited 'economic progress' the state has never seen before. 'It's going to create 7,500 construction jobs, more than 1,000 permanent jobs, nearly 1,900 additional indirect jobs,' Landry said, WBRZ reported. Since breaking ground on the project in December 2024, Meta said it has awarded more than $1.6 billion in contracts to Louisiana businesses. The company also touted the increased tax revenues from the data center helped fund teacher bonuses of up to $50,000 in Richland Parish - a 400 percent jump from last year. 'It’s life-altering for our teachers and their families, and it’s transforming our schools,' Richland Parish’s School District Superintendent said in a statement.

'Meta’s investment has made Richland Parish a destination for education as well as industry,' they added. Some residents are pushing back on the project, arguing that construction jobs will fade once the facility is complete and that the heavy water and power demands of data centers are not fully considered. Alaina DiLaura, who works with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, told the outlet the announcement 'raises more questions.' DiLaura said her organization is concerned about the data center’s energy needs, and how it could lead to higher power bills for residents, with financial impacts reaching far beyond the parish.

'The cost of the project is spread across residents,' she told the outlet. 'It's not just residents in Richland Parish. It's all Entergy Louisiana customers that bear the brunt of this project,' DiLaura added. In response to the skepticism, Landry assured residents they would be protected from any added costs and would not have to pay for the project. 'It's easy to sell fear,' Landry said, per the outlet. The governor told the outlet other states were caught unprepared by the infrastructure needs of major data centers, but Meta’s investment will help ensure Louisiana residents are not stuck with the costs.

The Richland Parish project is expected to be up and running by 2030. Data centers contain hundreds or even thousands of servers that power basic functions of the internet, which make them crucial facets of American infrastructure. In the case of Meta's 28 data centers across the globe, they have server space to process and store the billions of messages, posts and images circulated on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp every single second of the day. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said the Louisiana facility will help make its AI model get smarter, faster and more useful.