Get the latest tech news
Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center
The massive data center buildout is underway, requiring massive amounts of new power and, increasingly, more fossil fuels and gas plants.
The scramble for AI dominance has positioned utilities as the gatekeepers of the hyperscaler market, weighing the benefits of massive capital investments for an emergent industry—whose future payoffs remain murky—versus potential rate hikes and the risk of stranded assets for decades to come. Meta is leveling the massive site for its data center complex in Richland Parish, Louisiana.Hyperion has plenty of local political support, but it also managed to unite some environmentalists and Big Oil in opposition, the latter of which voiced concerns about increased power costs for their refineries and petrochemical plants. Data centers and gas plants are booming in Virginia, Texas, California, and, increasingly, nationwide, including more rural locales.The staggering scale of the project and the resource demands it entails have raised alarm bells for some in Louisiana, where the electric grid is already fragile.
Or read this on Hacker News
