Meta's $50 Billion Data Center Bombshell: Zuckerberg's AI Ambitions Soar

According to a report from two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump has casually disclosed that Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) highly touted Louisiana data center, Hyperion, carries a $50 billion price tag. This figure, never shared publicly by Meta, is a bombshell revelation, as it dwarfs the original $10 billion estimate and equals nearly 70% of Meta's entire capital expenditure budget for the year.

Louisiana state officials had previously pegged the cost of Hyperion at $10 billion, a number investors and the public alike took at face value. Even CEO Mark Zuckerberg, when introducing the project in July, described it only as part of Meta's broader push to spend "hundreds of billions" on compute to build artificial superintelligence.

However, Trump's disclosure now forces Meta into an awkward spotlight on just how far it is willing to go - and spend - for its AI moonshot. Hints of a much larger price tag had already surfaced, with reports earlier this month that Meta tapped investment firms to spearhead a $29 billion financing package for Hyperion. But the $50 billion figure puts the project among the most expensive data center undertakings in corporate history.

For Meta, Hyperion isn't just another facility - it's intended to be the cornerstone of Zuckerberg's AI ambitions. With this staggering price tag now public, the pressure is enormous for Meta to prove this spending translates into breakthroughs rather than bloated costs. Shareholders, already wary of heavy AI investments, will be closely watching to see if this bet powers the future of Meta or risks becoming Silicon Valley's priciest white elephant.