Last year, Entergy obtained approval to build three gas plants, which are expected to produce approximately 2.3 gigawatts of electricity for Meta. With this new expansion, Hyperion will be supplied by a total of 10 natural gas facilities, providing over 7 gigawatts of power.
Entergy received regulatory approval for the initial set of plants in 2025 and later sought to connect additional gas generation to Louisiana's grid to accommodate increasing demand. However, the seven new plants will require their own approval from state regulators before construction can commence.Meta is not just paying for power generation, though; the company will also fund 240 miles of new transmission lines connecting South Louisiana to North Louisiana and Arkansas, battery energy storage systems, and nuclear power uprates at existing Entergy facilities. The scope of this commitment will extend well beyond the plants, effectively underwriting a regional grid expansion to serve a single campus.
The deal is structured so that Meta “pays its full cost of service,” according to Entergy, which projects the agreement will deliver more than $2 billion in customer savings over 20 years.
Meta declined to say how much it would spend on the gas plants and associated infrastructure, per Bloomberg. Of Hyperion's total power draw, approximately 5 gigawatts will go to compute workloads, with the remainder powering broader campus operations, a Meta spokesperson said.
All this comes amid a growing political fight over who pays for AI-driven electricity demand. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump demanded that technology companies pledge to cover their own power costs, ensuring residential bills don’t rise as a result of the data center infrastructure boom.
Rachel Peterson, Meta's vice president of data centers, says that the Entergy filing aligns with the so-called Ratepayer Protection Plans proposed by the White House and with Louisiana’s “business-friendly [regulatory] environment.”
A Meta spokesperson said that the company remains committed to its climate goals, but didn’t elaborate on how building a total of ten gas plants to feed its AI ambitions fits within them.The agreement includes a Meta commitment to help fund up to 2.5GW of new renewable energy resources, and the two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the future development and use of nuclear power.