Meta Hyperion

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

1. November 22, 2025

   Under construction
   Gulf States Newsroom publishes the crash records: 64 crashes in nine months against nine the year before, a driver killed, a driver with no license.
2. June 2025

   Under construction
   Governor Landry visits Holly Ridge and meets the sheriff's office over traffic complaints; the state converts three Highway 80 intersections to all-way stops.
3. January 2025

   Proposed
   Announced as part of Meta's $65B 2025 capex plan; described as a 2-gigawatt AI data center campus Source: Reuters
4. 2025

   Under construction
   Site preparation and construction underway Source: Meta
5. December 2024

   Under construction
   Meta breaks ground on Hyperion, described by the company as the largest data center in the world, in a parish where nearly a quarter of residents live below the poverty line.

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Meta Hyperion in Delhi vicinity, Richland County, Louisiana is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record, and no lawsuit has been filed so far. Police records obtained by the Gulf States Newsroom show 64 crashes on the roads around the site from January to mid September 2025, against nine in all of 2024.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: contested means active public debate is on record, with hearings, petitions, or organized opposition, without litigation.

Police records obtained by the Gulf States Newsroom show 64 crashes on the roads around the site from January to mid September 2025, against nine in all of 2024. A dump truck driver was killed in August 2025. An 18-wheeler driver told a deputy he had never held a license. Holly Ridge Elementary closed its playground, which faces the truck route. About a dozen residents interviewed said no one from the company or the parish had contacted them after complaints.

Power and water

Entergy Louisiana is building new natural-gas combined-cycle generation (7+ units, 5,200+ MW) to serve the load, plus Meta committed up to 2,500 MW of new solar; Meta pledges to match total use with 100% clean and renewable energy. The gas buildout and its ratepayer impact are contested by advocates.

Sierra Club reporting states ~5 million gallons/day (~2 billion/year). Cooling type not disclosed in primary sources. Meta pledges 100% water restoration by 2030 via a 316-acre restoration project with Resource Environmental Solutions.

Public money on the record

Notes on the record

A second, larger Meta data center development at the same Richland Parish complex is in progress under the internal name 'Project Evest' (Evest LLC, a Meta subsidiary and Laidley affiliate), the subject of a new, not-yet-docketed LPSC certification application (Direct Testimony of Laura K. Beauchamp on behalf of Entergy Louisiana, filed March 2026, public-redacted version). The testimony states Evest 'seeks to develop adjacent to Laidley's data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, that was the subject of the proceedings in LPSC Docket No. U-37425' (i.e., the already-tracked Hyperion project). To serve Evest, Entergy is seeking certification of seven new 754 MW 1x1 CCCT generators (four near the Richland Parish site, three sited near the existing Big Cajun site in Pointe Coupee Parish) plus battery storage co-located at the Bogalusa West Solar and Cypress Harvest Solar facilities -- on top of the three CCCTs (Franklin Farms 1&2, Waterford 5) already approved for Hyperion itself. Investigative coverage (The Lens, 2026-04-14) puts the combined Hyperion+Evest generation build at 10 new gas plants, 7,000+ MW, and $16B+ in new fossil-fuel infrastructure serving this one customer, and reports the underlying Entergy-Meta commercial agreements are not fully public. This is DISTINCT NEW information not yet reflected in the existing record's notes/community fields (which per the roster are already populated) -- flagging for maintainer review rather than as a field-merge, since 'community' on this record is locked (already has a value) and it is not yet certain whether Evest will ship as a second facility record or as an update to this one once its own docket number and site-specific coordinates are public.

Our reporting on this site

• 'Poverty, Crime and Squalor' · Guide

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