How Meta’s Secret $50 Billion AI Center Could Have a Devastating Toll on the Black South

Nine months. That’s all it took for Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Meta executives, Entergy Corporation, and local officials to secretly orchestrate one of the largest AI data centers on the planet.

Now, the cover is blown. A bombshell new report from the New York Times just exposed what really went down behind closed doors to fast-track a project that local Black residents will be forced to pay for in more ways than one.

To uncover the paper trail, NYT combed through corporate filings, tax records, land deeds and meeting transcripts, interviewing dozens of residents across New Orleans, Silicon Valley, Baton Rouge, and Richland Parish. What they unearthed is what some call nothing short of corporate leverage and public betrayal, as the project was approved without any public meetings and an independent administrative judge confirming whether the project was in the public’s best interest.

It’s a tale as old as time in the American South. Longtime Black residents are either forced out of their homes or required to deal with pollution—both air and noise alike—while Silicon Valley reaps the profits.

“Black communities face the highest impact from AI and data centers because they’re already disproportionately impacted by climate change, which is driven by CO2 emitted in part by the energy production involved in running data centers,” according to the Climate Justice Alliance.

Related: Fisk University Faces Backlash Over $1 Billion Data Center Development Project

The energy these data centers require could raise utility prices in areas were Black households already have difficulty paying their utility bills, the organization reported. The erecting of AI data centers has gotten so damaging, the NAACP has stepped up to “stop dirty data centers” in a nationwide campaign.

“As data centers expand, communities across the nation face new environmental and climate justice challenges including water contamination and depletion, air pollution, excessive energy use, quality of life concerns, and inequitable siting of the development,” the NAACP said.

The organization also offered solutions, suggesting pausing on new and expanding AI centers “until communities have start-to-end transparency regarding projects, environmental health monitoring for air, water, and soil, and comprehensive oversight measures in place.” The backroom deals aren’t limited to Louisiana, either.

In Southwest Memphis, the Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) are fighting back against Elon Musk’s plan to build the world’s largest supercomputer on Paul Lowry Road. Blindsided by city officials, MCAP, Protect Our Aquifer, and Young Gifted & Green launched a joint petition demanding transparency and exposing the dangerous environmental racism and health risks threatening Black families in the historic community.

“This approval is a disheartening failure for the Shelby County Health Department and is showing a blatant disregard for our health and environment while avoiding the enforcement of air quality legislation,” the organization said.

The fallout of the AI center boom doesn’t just damage the environment, it directly threatens Black families’ livelihoods. According to the Climate Justice Alliance, AI automation threatens to wipe out food service and hospitality jobs— industries disproportionately held by Black workers—adding to the existing gap in Black wealth.

In one big swoop, health standards and job security are eliminated with little to no consequence.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t live in the sky, it resides next door to neighborhoods and communities inside massive buildings the size of city blocks. Unlike traditional web servers, data centers are packed with thousands of supercomputers running non-stop, using up vast amounts of power. Because of that, the heat produced by the computers requires millions of gallons of water and round-the-clock electricity just to keep from melting.

“Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people,” according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Given those numbers, it’s no surprise Meta and state officials kept their plans for Louisiana’s new AI data center under wraps, as the community didn’t even know about it until the ink had dried, the Times reported.

Thanks to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) between Meta, Entergy, and government representatives, even the lawmakers voting to green light the project were kept completely in the dark about what they were actually signing off on. And Meta’s secret deal set off a massive domino effect.

Just months later, in February, Amazon followed the same Southern playbook, announcing a staggering $12 billion data center expansion in northwest Louisiana.