Investing.com -- Meta Platforms announced today that its Richland Parish, Louisiana data center will expand to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity to support the company's artificial intelligence initiatives.

The social media company said local Louisiana businesses have received more than $1.6 billion in contracts since construction began in December 2024.

The data center expansion represents an investment of more than $50 billion in the Richland Parish region. Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump stated the company's data center project would cost $50 billion.

Meta said it plans to invest over $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water and wastewater systems.

The company, along with other major technology firms, has been investing billions of dollars into AI data centers and computing power as demand continues to exceed supply.

Meta has committed to invest $600 billion in U.S. infrastructure and jobs over the next three years as it builds large-scale data centers to support CEO Mark Zuckerberg's AI agent technology projects.