Site work is progressing in a rural corner of northeast Louisiana, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to build one of the world's largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, a massive $10 billion complex roughly the size of 70 football fields.
Estimates are that when operational, the 4 million-sq.-ft. facility will consume more power in a day than the entire city of New Orleans on a hot summer day.
The expansive technology campus occupies the 2,250-acre former Franklin Farm mega site in Richland Parish, according to the Louisiana Economic Development (LED).
Meta projects the data center will support 500 or more new direct jobs locally, while LED estimates the project will result in the creation of more than 1,000 indirect jobs. The data company estimates 5,000 construction workers at the peak of construction, located between the small towns of Rayville and Delhi, approximately 30 miles east of Monroe.
Work kicked off on the Richland Parish Data Center in late 2024 with three major contracting firms set to build the gigantic complex. They include Minnesota-based Mortenson, Turner Construction Co. of New York, and DPR Construction, headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. All three companies maintain offices nationwide.
Mortensen has been on the site for several months using a full range of machines to move across the raw land in preparation for structural work. The contractor's scope of work includes:
• site preparation and grading;
• underground utilities;
• medium voltage distribution and substations for onsite power;
• building an onsite water treatment facility;
• erecting an offsite wastewater treatment facility;
• constructing administration and intelligent building operating system (IBOS) structures, in addition to guard houses; and
• building telecommunications infrastructure for outside plant (OSP) fiber distribution.
Turner Construction's work at the Meta project is limited to the four primary AI data center buildings on campus. Construction on those structures recently got under way and its procurement activities will continue throughout the remainder of 2025, according to the contractor.
Meanwhile, DPR Construction's duties on the project are to build approximately 2 million sq. ft. of data space, including one network data center building and four support data center structures, modular electrical rooms and modular central utility plant (MCUP) systems.
Meta expects construction on the new data center to continue through 2030. In addition, the company also has committed to investing more than $200 million in local infrastructure improvements, including roads and water systems.
Hyperscale data centers such as the one planned for Richland Parish are housed in huge physical structures designed to process the vast amounts of data required to support digital technologies, including AI workloads. The northeast Louisiana facility is the largest of more than 20 Meta data centers around the world.
To power the facility, which at its largest point extends more than a mile from front to back, Entergy will add clean, efficient power plants to its system to meet growing power demands, including from the data center. Meta has pledged to match its electricity use with 100 percent clean and renewable energy and is working with Entergy to bring at least 1,500 megawatts (MW) of new renewable energy to the grid through its Geaux Zero program.
"[We are] building the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. And this data center will be an important part of that mission," said Kevin Janda, Meta's director of data center strategy. "Richland Parish in Louisiana is an outstanding location for Meta to call home for a number of reasons: It provides great access to infrastructure, a reliable grid, a business-friendly climate and wonderful community partners that have helped us move this project forward. We're thrilled to be a new member of the community and are committed to investing in its long-term vitality."
Project Could Bring ‘Transformational Change' to Area
Louisiana's economic development agency expects the project, one of the largest private capital investments in the state's history, to spark new economic activity and investments throughout northeast Louisiana as multiple industries benefit from the billions of dollars invested.
LED noted in a news release that Meta "makes a concerted effort to source labor and materials locally, and partners with local schools and organizations to advance STEAM education and digital skills that can be used to compete in the digital workforce."
In addition, the tech giant has committed to contribute up to $1 million a year to Entergy's "The Power to Care" low-income ratepayer support program, a figure that will be matched by Entergy Louisiana.
Meta has always prioritized water stewardship in its operations as well, including minimizing water use at its data centers. By establishing its presence in Richland Parish, the company is pledging to restore more water than it consumes at the data center by investing in water restoration projects in Louisiana.
To support both the construction and eventual operation of the data center, Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) has committed $250,000 in Workforce Rapid Response funding to nearby Delta Community College to develop programs and expand capacity.
Delta plans to use those funds to scale up its construction trades programs to meet the data center's initial construction needs, and partner with peer institutions experienced in developing and delivering curricula for Meta's operations.
"This project will create a transformational change for the residents of the entire northeast Region," said Rob Cleveland, president and CEO of Grow NELA, a private, nonprofit corporation and a regional economic development agency for northeast Louisiana. "Meta chose [this area of] Louisiana because of the availability of reliable, low-cost energy, access to flat and developable land and a business-friendly environment led by Governor Jeff Landry. This project opens the floodgates for data center development in Louisiana, and we are prepared for what's ahead."
