Facebook parent Meta is planning an artificial intelligence data center in north Louisiana, a multi-billion-dollar project that would bring as many as 500 permanent jobs and serve as an endorsement of Louisiana as a home of major technology infrastructure if it is able to win regulatory approval.

An application to state regulators for a new power plant to support the project says that an unnamed company wants to build “a large and economically transformative facility” in Richland Parish.

In recent days, economic development officials and regulators have said publicly that the project is a data center, and is expected to involve an investment in the billions of dollars. Two sources familiar with the project who weren’t authorized to speak publicly say the company is Meta.

Data centers — airport-sized buildings filled with computer servers and other IT infrastructure — are a critical part of the AI boom that is rapidly transforming the global tech industry.

Companies like Meta, Amazon and Microsoft are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to construct these processing hubs across the U.S. and overseas. Nothing of the scale of the Meta project has been proposed before in Louisiana, and state economic development officials, armed with a new tax credit to lure these projects, see them as way to attract high-paying jobs.

The project would also represent an economic development coup for Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican who is working to lower corporate tax rates and take on other business-friendly initiatives.

Landry’s office declined to comment. Meta did not respond to a request for comment on its role in the project.

“We’re a job jobs jobs administration, so we’re happy to see big projects,” said Stephen Swiber, the resilience officer for the Landry administration in an interview Tuesday, without referencing the Meta project specifically.

The $5 billion project is expected to employ 300 to 500 people with an average salary of $82,000, according to filings to the Public Service Commission from Entergy. The PSC is being asked to approve three new natural gas power plants and other generation updates from Entergy, at a cost of at least $3.2 billion, that would be used to power the facility.

During a panel discussion Thursday at the Tulane Energy Forum, PSC Commissioner Eric Skrmetta said the data center could be up and running with accompanying power plants within three years. In addition, he said that there are three other AI data centers in various phases of planning in Central Louisiana.

Technology companies are increasingly drawn to Louisiana because of the state’s low electricity rates and amenable regulatory process, Skrmetta said.

“We are moving them through the process quickly,” said Skrmetta. “They’re finding a lot of impediments in other states that are keeping them from moving forward.”

The PSC will hear Entergy’s proposal on Wednesday and decide whether to hire a private consultant and a law firm to review the utility’s application. Entergy is requesting the commission to evaluate the proposal in ten months, and the project is expected to face opposition.

A handful of groups have requested to intervene in Entergy’s power plant proposal, including the Sierra Club and the Southern Renewable Energy Association.

They’re raising concerns over the data center’s reliance on fossil fuels, high water demand and how ratepayers could be affected by Entergy’s proposal. The organizations are also worried about rushing the regulatory process for such a high-stakes project.

“They’re asking a whole lot and not giving time for people to take a position,” Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said.

‘A game changer’

The data center, if it wins approval, could be transformational for Richland Parish, home to about 20,000 residents in a corner of the state that has struggled with high rates of poverty.

Meta is expected to set up shop on over 2,250 acres of agricultural land off Hwy 183, according to a public notice. Two of the proposed power plants would be located near the facility at a site called Franklin Farms in the community of Holly Ridge, the Entergy filings says.

“It’s a game changer for northeast Louisiana,” said PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell, whose district includes the proposed facility.

‘Tremendous opportunity’

Meta now operates more than two dozen data centers around the U.S. — massive facilities that can bring thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs.

Earlier this month, one of its newest data centers was completed outside of Nashville in Gallatin, Tennessee. The 800-acre campus has two buildings totaling more than 1.5 million square feet, with plans for a third underway. The $1.5 billion facility employed 1,100 constructions workers while it was being built and now has 100 full-time employees.

Those permanent jobs are technical and require skilled workers, typically with an associate’s degree, but do not require a four-year or professional degree, which makes Louisiana’s workforce well suited to the potential demand the centers will create.

Louisiana Economic Development has been a strong proponent of data centers. The agency supported legislation that went into effect this summer offering tax rebates on data center software and equipment, at a time when technology companies and private equity firms have ramped up investment in these facilities. 

In an interview last month, LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois said that her administration is working to bring data centers to north Louisiana.

“We have tremendous opportunity in that space. We have land and grid capacity,” Bourgeois said. “We have a workforce that is primed to deliver this kind of labor.”

The Louisiana Community and Technical College System was already working with the state to develop a curriculum to help train students for a career in the emerging field, Bourgeois said.

Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate reporter Liz Swaine contributed to this report.