- Meta’s AI data-centre in Richland Parish, Louisiana, currently estimated to cost $67 billion.
- The project underscores the power-hungry nature of large-scale AI, and shows energy capacity has become a strategic battleground in the race for technological supremacy.
What happened: Trump reveals Meta’s record-breaking Louisiana AI data centre
During a Cabinet meeting, US President Donald Trump displayed a graphic—allegedly provided by Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg—superimposing the planned AI data-centre, demonstrating its sheer physical scale. He disclosed the project’s cost at about $67 billion.
Meta is constructing the facility in Richland Parish, Louisiana, United States, under its reorganised Superintelligence Labs division. The company has engaged financing partners PIMCO and Blue Owl Capital to raise roughly $29 billion to help fund the build.
Trump used the project as a case study in a wider national narrative—warning that AI’s explosive growth could triple US electricity demand, and spotlighting the strategic importance of energy infrastructure in the global AI race.
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Why it’s important
This revelation is significant on multiple fronts. First, the scale and cost—mark it as potentially the largest single-user data-centre ever built, dwarfing any prior investments in the sector.
Second, the project lays bare the astronomical energy demands of AI infrastructure. Trump’s assertion that US energy output may need to double or triple to keep pace paints AI not as a digital novelty, but an industrial force.
The reliance on fossil fuels—highlighted in other recent reporting—including gas-fired power to feed hyperscale computing, raises serious questions about the environmental implications of AI’s expansion.
Third, the location in Louisiana is strategically significant. The state is emerging for energy-intensive industries, and combining the abundant natural gas output, cost-competitive electricity rates, and expanding infrastructure which aim to attract major projects such as Meta’s data-centre
