Meta negotiated a massive Louisiana data center deal in private talks with local officials, locking up land and approvals for a campus covering nearly six square miles before any public process took place, according to a New York Times examination published Sunday.
The project, one of the largest data center developments in U.S. history, was effectively decided behind closed doors, the Times reported, with local officials facilitating terms without the public disclosure that typically accompanies infrastructure at that scale.
Meta did not dispute the private nature of the talks. The company has accelerated data center construction across the United States as it races to expand AI infrastructure capacity.
The Louisiana arrangement follows a pattern the Wail has tracked in other states, where technology giants approach local governments directly, offer economic development arguments, and secure favorable terms before community or regulatory review can take shape.
No Louisiana state official has publicly called for a review of the process as of Monday. The Times report, citing documents and people with knowledge of the negotiations, provides the first detailed account of how the deal was structured from the outset to limit outside scrutiny.
Louisiana legislative committees are scheduled to reconvene in the fall session beginning September 2026, when the deal could face formal review.