Hut 8 Corporation has chosen Southeast Louisiana and Entergy as the location and power partner for its River Bend artificial intelligence (AI) data center campus. River Bend data center is a multi-phase investment valued at approximately US$10 billion. The Southeast Louisiana data center project is anchored by substantial utility capacity and has also secured long-term tenancy from AI cloud operator Fluidstack, supported by Google.
Entergy Louisiana will be supplying infrastructure capable of delivering hundreds of megawatts to the campus, and also oversee transmission and interconnection installations. Hut 8 also notes that the first phase will serve roughly 245 MW of critical IT load, with an initial lease term of 15 years valued at $7 billion. If tenants exercise renewal options, the total future lease value could exceed $17 billion across the campus. Louisiana is also home to Meta’s data center in Richland Parish whose financing structure has since increased after first announcement.
Project Overview
North American digital infrastructure developer Hut 8 is historically known for crypto mining and later diversification into data infrastructure. River Bend data center represents a central commitment to high-performance computing aimed at supporting the company’s workload.
Additionally, the fact that Google is underwriting tenancy via Fluidstack further elevates the narrative on the US$10 billion data center. This is not your typical speculative build. It is demand-backed, capital-intensive facility structured to deliver ever increasing, extensive digital workload in tightening supply chains amid rising electrification costs tied to AI computation.
River Bend Data Center Project Factsheet
Location: West Feliciana Parish in Southeast Louisiana
Developer: Hut 8 Corp.
Partner: Entergy Louisiana as infrastructure provider and power facilitator.
Initial Build Capacity: 330 MW utility capacity, supporting 245 MW critical IT load.
Tenant: Fluidstack, Google
Campus Scale Potential: Up to 1 GW utility capacity in later phases.
Target Operational Date: 2027
Project Timeline
2024 – Site selection in West Feliciana Parish, early feasibility work, and initial engagement with Entergy Louisiana on utility capacity and grid readiness.
Early to Mid-2025 – Project structuring and power delivery planning done.
Late 2025 – Hut 8 partnership with Entergy for the development of River Bend data center project. Early works including civil preparation expected to start.
2025 to 2026 – Transmission, substation, and interconnection to be done by Entergy Louisiana. Campus design finalization and procurement of power and cooling systems also expected alongside main construction phase for phase I.
2027 – Planned commissioning and start of initial operations.
If River Bend data center campus proceeds as planned, it could make Southeast Louisiana a major AI data centre hub, alongside other states like Texas and the Carolinas.
