Meta’s $10B AI Data Center in Louisiana (and Opportunities for Small Business!)

Meta’s massive $10 billion AI data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, is set to transform the region’s economy. This project, one of the largest of its kind, signals big opportunities for solopreneurs and small businesses.

From tech services to local marketing, the ripple effects are huge. My “Flood Your Zone” map tracks projects like this to uncover growth opportunities across the U.S.

Want to stand out in this new economy? Grab my free Flood Your Zone Brand Self-Audit to assess your business’s readiness!

Coming Up:

What is Meta’s AI Data Center?
Economic Impact in Richland Parish
Opportunities for Solopreneurs
How to Prepare Your Business

By Christa Kelly | Last Updated August 17, 2025

This post is part of the ‘Flood Your Zone: U.S. Big Growth Map’ where we’re tracking new U.S. growth in 2025+ from reshoring, factories, infrastructure, and tech projects — and uncovering ripple-effect small business opportunities.

What is Meta’s AI Data Center?

Meta is building a 4 million square foot AI data center in Richland Parish, near Monroe, Louisiana, with a $10 billion investment.

Set to be Meta’s largest data center globally, it will power AI workloads and cloud services, with completion expected by 2030.

This project is part of a broader U.S. tech boom, tracked on our Flood Your Zone: U.S. Big Growth Map 2025+

Economic Impact in Richland Parish

The data center will create hundreds of construction jobs and around 50 permanent tech jobs, boosting the local economy.

Meta’s push for 4 gigawatts of new nuclear energy to power the facility could also attract energy-related businesses.

Local restaurants, suppliers, and service providers will see increased demand as the construction takes place, there will be lots of extra workers in the area needing housing, eating, shopping and more.

However, this data center once built and operational, isn’t expected to create a huge amount of jobs either inside of the data center or as a ripple effect around town.

This means that local small businesses in the area should see revenue gains through construction, but that will likely taper off once the construction workers are done. But, will this massive Meta data center be just the first of more big tech companies coming to the Richland Parish area in Louisiana?

For small business folks, it’s worth watching the land sales and press releases about companies visiting the local government authorities… chances are more small business opportunities will arise.