Meta Invests $50 Billion to Expand Hyperion AI Data Center to 5GW, Becoming World’s Largest Single-Campus Facility

Meta Platforms has announced a massive expansion of its Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, more than doubling its planned capacity to 5 gigawatts (GW) and making it the company’s largest facility. The project, which began in 2024 with an initial $10 billion investment for a 2GW campus, has seen its budget balloon to $50 billion over the past two years. The campus footprint will also expand from 4 million square feet to approximately 10 million square feet, with the facility scheduled to come online in phases through 2030.

The expansion underscores the immense scale of AI infrastructure required by leading technology companies. A 5GW data center requires power equivalent to four to five nuclear reactors, enough electricity to power approximately 4 million to 5 million households. According to Axios, this is roughly six times the peak summer electricity demand of New Orleans. In South Korea, the facility’s power consumption would represent about 5% of the nation’s peak demand, which reaches approximately 98.8GW during extreme weather periods.

Currently, Hyperion and the UAE-US AI Campus (Stargate UAE) project in Abu Dhabi are the only officially announced single data center campuses outside China designed to support more than 5GW of computing capacity. While the US Stargate initiative targets a combined 10GW of AI infrastructure, that capacity will be distributed across multiple campuses, making Hyperion the world’s largest single-campus AI data center dedicated to one company. Industry publication Data Center Dynamics noted that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously hinted at the 5GW target, with the latest announcement confirming those plans.

To address local community concerns, Meta has committed $1 billion to improve roads, water infrastructure, and wastewater systems in Richland Parish. The company has already signed more than $1.6 billion in contracts with local businesses and is supporting thousands of jobs. Upon completion, the data center will create approximately 1,000 direct jobs, with Louisiana Economic Development estimating an additional 1,900 indirect jobs and 7,500 construction-related positions. Meta has also partnered with utility Entergy to prevent higher electricity costs for local residents, agreeing to support the procurement costs for seven new natural gas power plants, three grid-scale battery storage systems, and expanded nuclear generation capacity. Meta estimates this arrangement will reduce electricity costs for local residents by approximately $2 billion over the next 20 years.

A distinguishing feature of the Hyperion project is its financing structure, backed by asset managers BlackRock and Blue Owl Capital. Rather than owning the data center directly, Meta funds the project through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) joint venture. Under this structure, Blue Owl holds an 80% equity stake, with Meta owning the remaining 20%. According to The Wall Street Journal, this represents one of the largest private credit financing structures ever used by a technology company. Blue Owl’s investment funds contributed approximately $7 billion in initial equity, and Meta subsequently received approximately $2.6 billion through a one-time distribution, recovering part of its upfront investment. The financing consortium also includes BlackRock and bond investment firm PIMCO, which issued highly rated A+ bonds, with PIMCO purchasing $18 billion and BlackRock-affiliated investors acquiring $3 billion.

This structure allows Meta to keep much of the debt associated with the multibillion-dollar project off its consolidated balance sheet, preserving its strong credit rating while directing more capital toward strategic AI investments such as GPUs. Ownership of the Hyperion data center will reside with the joint venture, while Meta will oversee construction and operations before leasing the completed facility under a long-term operating lease. Institutional investors will receive long-term rental income and bond interest backed by Meta. However, the initial lease agreement reportedly spans only about four years, raising local concerns that if Meta discontinues use of the data center after that period, the cost of power plants and grid infrastructure built by Entergy specifically for Hyperion could be passed on to Louisiana electricity customers. Meta has stated that it will assume full responsibility for the project’s electricity costs to ensure local residents are not adversely affected.