The economic impact of Meta’s massive artificial intelligence data center is already being felt across northeast Louisiana, even though the facility is still years away from opening.
The Hyperion data center in Richland Parish has been under construction for about 18 months, and Grow NELA President and CEO Rob Cleveland says the project is already creating a major boost in sales tax revenue across the region.
“First year of the project, 2025, our 10-parishes in the region brought in over 383-million dollars in sales tax, which is up over 40-million dollars,” Cleveland said.
Cleveland says first-quarter sales tax collections in Richland Parish reached $38 million, which is six times higher than the same period last year. He says sales tax revenues are also increasing in neighboring Franklin Parish, while Ouachita Parish is on pace for a record-setting year.
Cleveland says Meta’s investment is also attracting new businesses to northeast Louisiana, including companies looking to support the growth created by the data center project.
“Faith Technologies that’s a company does data center work and that company is going to invest $80-million and create 200 new jobs in Ouachita Parish,” Cleveland said.
The economic activity is also leading to new residential development, with local restaurants and other businesses seeing more customers as construction continues.
“Our restaurants are seeing huge increases in the amount of people that are coming in and many of them are doing catering outside of their normal business activity,” Cleveland said.
The Hyperion data center is expected to become operational in 2030, with final project completion projected for 2032. The facility is expected to create about 7,500 construction jobs and approximately 1,000 permanent jobs once fully operational.
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