An energy infrastructure provider is moving forward with a multibillion-dollar data center project in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, marking another megaproject win for the Bayou State.
Hut 8, a Miami-based company, reported the first phase of construction is underway on its River Bend data center campus, valued at approximately $10 billion, according to a news release. The energy infrastructure company said it expects the facility to begin operations in the second quarter of 2027.
Dallas-based Jacobs will serve as the engineering, procurement and construction management partner for the project, in collaboration with Vertiv, a Westerville, Ohio-based critical digital infrastructure provider, according to a separate Hut 8 news release. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs will serve as loan underwriters on project-level financing expected to cover up to 85% of total costs.
The win adds to Jacobs’ growing data center portfolio, which CEO Bob Pragada said has jumped fivefold during the company’s latest fiscal fourth quarter earnings call.
“Jacobs brings decades of global expertise in delivering complex infrastructure for advanced facilities to some of the most discerning clients in the world,” Pragada said in the Hut 8 release. “Our collaboration with Hut 8 reflects the shared discipline and ambition needed to deliver a project we believe will become the benchmark for AI infrastructure.”
Hut 8 has secured an initial 330 megawatts of utility capacity for the campus from Entergy Louisiana, with the potential to scale by up to an additional 1,000 megawatts of utility capacity. At that magnitude, the project would rank among the largest data center campuses globally and among the largest private capital projects in Louisiana history, according to Hut 8.
The Hut 8 project adds to a growing pipeline of hyperscale data center construction activity in Louisiana. For example, around this time last year, Meta tapped New York City-based Turner Construction, Redwood City, California-based DPR and Minneapolis-based Mortenson to build a $10 billion data center in Richland Parish near Monroe, Louisiana.
“Louisiana continues to win,” Gov. Jeff Landry said in the release. “Hut 8’s investment in River Bend builds on our track record of attracting global-scale projects in the industries of the future.”
At peak construction activity, Hut 8 expects about 1,000 construction workers onsite, according to the release.
