Nine months after Meta broke ground on its massive AI data center in Louisiana, the cost of the project is now expected to be nearly three times greater than first announced, suggesting the tech giant is already planning for future expansions in Richland Parish.

In a statement last week announcing a financial partner for the project, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said the Holly Ridge data center, since named Hyperion, will cost $27 billion, up from the $10 billion announced in late 2024.

The company said in an Oct. 21 announcement the larger price tag includes “the buildings and long-lived power, cooling, and connectivity infrastructure at the campus.”

“We are proud to be part of the Richland Parish community, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership for years to come,” said Rachel Peterson, a Meta executive overseeing data centers, in the statement.

The announcement, which comes as work is well underway on the former farmland in Richland Parish, sheds new light on recent remarks from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder said in July that the north Louisiana data center, which was originally expected to cover an area the size of 70 football fields, would be much larger, with an eventual footprint the size of Manhattan.

A few weeks later, at a cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump praised the planned size of the Hyperion data center, boosting its price tag to $50 billion.

“When they said ‘$50 billion for a plant,’ I said, ‘What the hell kind of a plant is that?'” Trump said at the Aug. 26 meeting. “But when you look at this, you understand why it’s $50 billion.”

Louisiana Economic Development officials, who wooed Meta to the Louisiana site throughout much of 2024, said the company has not officially told them of any plans to expand the scope of the project. But LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois said the new $27 billion price tag is not the result of cost overruns or inflation, and could signal Meta’s future expansion plans in Louisiana.

“We hope, as with any company, that they see potential for growth and expansion in Louisiana,” Bourgeois said Monday. “We continue to have conversations with them and hope the relationship continues.”

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the company’s plans beyond what was in the release.

“As Mark shared earlier this summer, this site may grow, and we’ll share more when we’re able,” Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle said.

‘Larger project … new deal’

The Hyperion data center is already transforming Richland Parish, which has a population of fewer than 20,000. It is attracting real estate speculators and out-of-state workers to the area, driving up land prices and spawning a building boom with a ripple effect that economic development experts have heralded.

It has also raised concerns among environmentalists and climate activists, who point to higher utility rates and water shortages in other places with giant AI data centers.

If the 4-million-square-foot Hyperion facility grows larger, it’s unclear what it would mean for an area already reeling from rapid change.

Also unclear is what it would mean for Meta’s deal with the state. According to the terms of the incentive package announced last December by Meta officials and Gov. Jeff Landry, Meta is eligible for a 30-year break on its sales and property taxes in return for making a “payment in lieu of taxation” or PILOT, equal to a portion of its total tax liability.

The amount of the annual payment will be calculated by an independent board and based on the amount of new capital investment the company has made.

Under the terms of the deal, Meta has agreed to invest $10 billion and create up to 500 full-time jobs by the end of 2032. The company has committed to hiring local workers for as many positions as possible.

Bourgeois said a “hypothetical $27 billion project would mean a larger project and a new deal,” though no such deal has been negotiated yet.

In recent weeks, Meta has been buying up the land for its data center that it initially was leasing from the state. In September, it exercised an option to purchase 1,420 acres of state-owned land dubbed the Franklin Farms mega site that is ground zero for the facility, paying $12.5 million for the property.

At the same time, it acquired from private landowners an additional 1,200 acres of adjacent property for an undisclosed price, giving it a total of 2,600 acres so far, according to the Richland Parish Assessor’s Office.

Two people familiar with real estate transactions in Richland said the company is negotiating for other large tracts next to the growing 2,600-acre site, though no other sales have been finalized.

Ability to walk away?

Documents filed by Meta last week also shed new light on how the company plans to pay for the massive data center. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta has formed a joint venture with a New York-based asset management firm, Blue Owl Capital, to finance the project.

In the statement on its website, Meta says that Blue Owl is providing private credit to the joint venture and will retain an 80% ownership stake in the facility, with Meta keeping a 20% share. Meta will lease the facilities on the Hyperion campus from the joint venture once construction is complete.

The lease agreements have an initial four-year term with options to extend, “providing Meta with long-term strategic flexibility,” the company said in a statement.

In return, Meta is agreeing to pay the joint venture if it were to decline to renew the lease or terminate it.

Some Wall Street trade publications last week said the terms of the deal give Meta an out should it decide to walk away from Richland Parish.

“Meta wants the optionality to be able to walk away from this facility if either their strategy changes or they decide they are going to take a different approach to AI training, or God forbid this ‘bubble cracks’ and the world goes a different direction,” Naveen Sarma, a managing director at S&P, who covers credit ratings for companies in the telecommunication and media sector, told the financial publication PitchBook.

Bourgeois said she is not concerned about that hypothetical and said Meta has always been up front about its plans to finance the Richland Parish facility with money from private investors and lenders.

“The financing deal doesn’t change any of the terms of the company’s deal with us whatsoever,” she said. “It doesn’t mean anything for us or the parameters of the deal.”