Meta said on Wednesday it is expanding its Richland Parish, Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, extending a buildout the company says is central to its infrastructure strategy in rural northeast Louisiana.
The company said the project in Richland Parish is generating local benefits for teachers, students and nearby businesses as construction and related activity continue around the campus. Meta did not disclose a price for the expansion in the release.
Meta framed the Louisiana site as more than a large-scale computing project, saying the buildout is producing “life-changing returns” for residents and institutions in the area. The company said the expansion is helping support local schools and broader community needs in the parish.
According to the announcement, teachers and students are among the early beneficiaries. Meta described education-related support as part of the local value created by the project, though the release did not detail specific funding amounts or program terms. The company said the effort is tied to resources intended to reach classrooms and student outcomes in the surrounding community.
Local businesses are also seeing gains from the data center work, Meta said. Construction projects of this scale typically draw in contractors, suppliers, restaurants and service firms, and Meta said nearby businesses in Richland Parish are benefiting from the buildout’s demand. The company did not quantify the number of jobs or vendors involved in the release.
The expansion adds to a broader wave of spending on AI and cloud infrastructure as large technology companies increase data center capacity. Meta’s Richland Parish campus has been presented by the company as a major part of its long-term infrastructure plans, with the site located in rural Louisiana rather than a major metro area.
Meta did not provide a completion date for the 5GW expansion in the release. It said the project continues to move forward in Richland Parish, where construction has also drawn attention to the role of major technology campuses in smaller communities. A separate news category on Volve Vision Newsroom carries related reporting.
The company’s announcement follows a series of large-scale data center investments by major tech firms seeking more compute capacity for digital services and AI workloads.
