Hyperion: How Meta Got Everything It Wanted in a Secret Louisiana Data Center Deal

A Times examination details how the Silicon Valley giant used private talks with local officials to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles.

30. Juli 2026 um 07:44 Uhr / Von Eli Tan und Maureen Farrell, The New York Times

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announces Meta's artificial intelligence data center project in Rayville, La., on Dec. 4, 2024. Bild: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

HOLLY RIDGE, La. – A Louisiana state legislative committee was about to consider a bill in April 2024 when Richard Nelson, then the state's revenue secretary, received an urgent message from Gov. Jeff Landry. Get the bill passed, the newly elected Republican governor told him, because they needed it for something else.

Nelson walked across a room in Baton Rouge's towering State Capitol to the bill's author, Chris Turner, a Republican state representative.