President Donald Trump stated during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Meta’s planned artificial intelligence data center in Louisiana will cost $50 billion. The facility, located in Richland Parish, is designed to be the company’s largest data center, built to handle the immense computational power required for advanced AI workloads and digital infrastructure. When contacted about the President’s remarks, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, declined to comment on the specific figure.
The projected cost cited by Trump appears to encompass the broader, long-term scale of Meta’s AI ambitions. This figure differs from the company’s own announced investment of over $10 billion for the initial setup of the Louisiana data center, which was revealed last year. To finance this and other expansions, Reuters reported earlier this month that Meta has enlisted investment firms PIMCO and Blue Owl Capital to spearhead a $29 billion financing effort for its data center projects in rural Louisiana.
This massive infrastructure project is a cornerstone of Meta’s reorganized and intensified focus on artificial intelligence. In June, the company consolidated its AI efforts under a new division called “Superintelligence Labs,” a strategic move that followed senior staff departures and a tepid response to its latest open-source AI model, Llama 4. The initiative represents a high-stakes push to regain competitive ground in the rapidly evolving AI race.
The Louisiana data center is part of a much grander vision articulated by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Last month, he announced that Meta plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to construct several massive AI data centers dedicated to achieving “superintelligence.” This commitment intensifies Zuckerberg’s pursuit of leading AI technology, a goal he is supporting by waging a costly war for top engineering talent in the field.
