Meta’s Biggest Spending Worry Could Turn Into Its Next Big Payday

Meta Platforms (META) is going much bigger in Louisiana. Earlier this week, the company announced that its Hyperion data center in Richland Parish will expand to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity, up from the earlier plan for 2 GW. The total investment in the project has now crossed $50 billion. Hyperion is where Meta trains its largest AI models, and construction has been running since December 2024.

What makes the announcement particularly interesting is its timing. Less than two weeks ago, Meta was reportedly setting up a cloud unit to sell its spare computing power, which caused META stock to rise. In May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already told shareholders that getting into cloud computing was “definitely on the table.” The CEO said that companies were approaching Meta almost every week, asking to buy the company’s API service or pay a premium for its spare compute. So, a company that looks like it already has compute to spare is now more than doubling its largest site.