Meta Funds Seven Gas Plants to Power Biggest Data Center

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Meta Platforms Inc. is paying for the construction of seven new natural gas-fired plants to fuel its most power-hungry data center, increasing its reliance on fossil fuels amid a fast-moving artificial intelligence race.

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The company reached a new agreement with Entergy Corp. to build and pay for enough gas plants to provide a total of 5.2 gigawatts of electricity to a data center it’s developing in rural Louisiana, the utility’s local subsidiary said in a statement on Friday. That’s in addition to three gas plants already approved to power the facility, bringing the total number of plants to ten, aiming to provide more than 7 gigawatts of power, according to Entergy.

Entergy shares rose as much as 7.2%, a record high, on Friday morning in New York.

Dubbed Hyperion, the data center in Richland Parish will be Meta’s largest. To support the site’s expansion, Entergy Louisiana said that Meta would pay for a comprehensive build-out of seven gas plants. Meta will also pay for 240 miles of transmission lines connecting South Louisiana to North Louisiana and Arkansas, battery energy storage and nuclear power uprates, the statement said.

The announcement comes as pressure from customers and consumer advocates mounts on technology companies to cover rising energy costs tied to the AI infrastructure boom. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump demanded companies pledge to pay for their own electricity, ensuring power bills don’t rise.

Entergy said that the deal with Meta was “structured to ensure Meta pays its full cost of service,” and that the agreement would deliver more than $2 billion in customer savings over 20 years. Meta declined to comment on how much it would spend on the new gas plants and other infrastructure related to the Hyperion project. A Meta spokesperson said Friday the company remains committed to its climate goals.

“Entergy’s filing for new energy generation represents one of several factors needed to move an expansion of this project forward, demonstrates the business-friendly environment in Louisiana that makes projects like this possible and aligns with the principles in the recently signed White House Ratepayer Protection Plans,” Rachel Peterson, Meta’s vice president of data centers, said in a statement.

Last year, Entergy received approval to build three natural gas plants that will generate about 2.3 gigawatts of electricity for Meta’s data center in Louisiana. The utility also applied to connect even more gas generation to the power grid in Louisiana to meet increasing demand.

Hyperion will have about 5 gigawatts of computing power, with the remaining gigawatts used to power the broader campus, according to a Meta spokesperson. The seven new gas plants will need to be approved by state regulators.

The agreement between the companies includes a Meta commitment to help fund up to 2.5 gigawatts of new renewable resources as well as a memorandum of understanding to explore future development and use of nuclear power.

— With assistance from Edwin Chan

(Story updates second paragraph with total number of plants and gigawatts, third paragraph with shares and last paragraph with breakdown between compute and facility power usage. An earlier version was corrected to make clear the seven gas plants are all new.)