Meta is planning to pay for seven new gas plants in Louisiana to power a massive data center complex, expanding ties between the fossil fuel industry and the artificial intelligence boom.
The project is notable for its size and timing. Earlier this month, Meta was one of seven large technology companies that backed a White House-endorsed “ratepayer protection pledge,” agreeing to build, provide or buy any power tied to data centers.
Under the deal announced with utility Entergy Louisiana on Friday, Meta agreed to fund the equivalent of several cities’ worth of gas power, or 5.2 gigawatts, to support its Hyperion data center complex in northeastern Louisiana. The development, Meta’s largest planned data center, is now slated to be supported by 10 gas plants, adding to an earlier announcement for three gas generators to power the site.
“Our Richland Parish data center serves as a symbol of the ambition and scale of next-generation AI infrastructure,” Rachel Peterson, Meta’s vice president of data centers, said in a statement.
