Amazon said it expects to invest $12 billion in Louisiana as part of a plan to build data centers. The company said the data center buildout, in northwest Louisiana, will create 540 full-time jobs, as well as additional jobs it claims will help support the facilities, such as electricians and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technicians.
Earlier this month, Amazon had said it expects to invest $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, more than any of the other hyperscalers, which combined have forecast nearly $700 billion in 2026 expenditures. Most of this spending is expected to go to AI-related initiatives.
When asked if the $12 billion Louisiana commitment would be part of this investment, a spokesperson said “We regularly make investment announcements at the federal, state, and local level and those investments often occur over many years.”
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Amazon said it will help offset any impacts of the Louisiana facilities with a $400 million fund aimed at water infrastructure in the area and said it will only use water for cooling and other needs. The company said it will assume “100% of the costs” of the Louisiana data centers and is working with Southwestern Electric Power Company on any electrical infrastructure needed.
Tech companies are currently racing to build data centers to fulfill their AI ambitions. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to build massive data centers.
Louisiana is also the site where Meta will be building its massive Hyperion data center in a joint venture worth $27 billion with Blue Owl Capital. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in July 2025 that Meta is building several massive AI compute clusters, each of them with the energy footprint of a small city.
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One such facility, Prometheus, will be the company’s first multi-gigawatt data center, while Hyperion is designed to scale up to five gigawatts over time. These investments are intended to support the goal of developing “superintelligent AI systems.” President Donald Trump had announced last August that Meta is going to spend $50 billion for its data center in Louisiana.
Of late, data centers have been facing increased scrutiny over their massive consumption of power and water. Recently, three democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut expressed alarm that utility companies are passing billions in infrastructure upgrade costs to consumers while tech firms expand their artificial intelligence operations.
“American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies,” the lawmakers wrote, requesting detailed responses by Jan. 12.