Meta计划在里奇兰教区建设的数据中心园区效果图显示，大批设施将为人工智能热潮提供动力。图片来源：Meta 在路易斯安那州东北部那片宁静的昔日农田上，一队挖掘机已将超过2000英亩（约合8093729.6平方米）的红黏土土地推平。此地处于里奇兰教区的乡村地带，过去曾是洪水泛滥的平原，蜿蜒曲折的支流纵横交错，野生芦苇丛肆意生长，黑熊仍在此间出没。当地2万居民中，有四分之一生活在贫困线以下。 如今，全球市值第六大的公司——Meta进驻此地。这家科技巨头渴望将里奇兰教区打造成承载其宏大人工智能愿景的基地，而要达成这一目标，离不开大量新建燃气发电厂提供的能源支撑。该地区土地广袤无垠，且毗邻路易斯安那州庞大的海恩斯维尔页岩气田。 去年12月，Meta启动了其迄今为止规模最大的数据中心建设：这个斥资100亿美元打造的园区，涵盖9栋建筑，将排列着一排排服务器，总占地面积超400万平方英尺（约合37.2万平方米），比迪士尼乐园还要大。 Meta董事长兼首席执行官马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）并未就此止步。7月，他将该项目命名为Hyperion——数据中心“超级集群”，最终能耗可能相当于400万户家庭的总用电量，有望成为全球最大的数据中心项目。扎克伯格表示，Hyperion的占地面积将相当于“曼哈顿的相当大一部分区域”。 该项目规划的算力能耗高达2吉瓦，扎克伯格称最终可能扩展至5吉瓦，用于训练开源大型语言模型。Meta在人工智能竞赛中因此前失败的项目以及耗资数十亿美元却收效甚微的“元宇宙”计划而落后。如今，他将Hyperion项目及大规模建设计划定位为对“超级智能”的追求，同时以2.5亿美元的薪酬待遇挖角人工智能人才，并收购Scale AI 49%的股份。 这无疑是科技巨头在人工智能领域掀起的又一场波澜壮阔的竞争，Meta正与谷歌、微软、亚马逊以及OpenAI等公司展开角逐。 “我们之所以进行这些投资，是因为我们坚信，超级智能将优化我们所做的一切。”扎克伯格在7月30日的Meta财报电话会议上表示。Meta的一位发言人向《财富》杂志透露，目前无法确切阐明该园区将为哪些业务提供动力，因为到2030年园区启用时，人工智能技术将发展到何种程度仍是未知数。 该项目规模之庞大，令这片原本宁静地区的当地人深感震撼。 “我想，和不少人一样，听闻如此偏远的乡村地区被挑中建设这样的项目时，我第一反应是有点难以置信。”附近雷维尔镇第一浸信会教堂的牧师贾斯汀·克拉克（Justin Clark）表示，“随着对项目内容与规模的了解逐渐深入，那种震惊感始终萦绕不散，实在是令人难以置信。” 克拉克期待着迎接新工人来到该地区，但他也承认，实在难以真切想象这一项目的宏大规模。在最近一次商会宴会上，众人得知这是北美最大的建筑工地：“这太不可思议了。”他惊叹道。 总体而言，大型科技公司新建的数据中心对能源和水资源的需求极为巨大。单是维持Hyperion项目服务器冷却及正常运行，所需电力就将达到新奥尔良市用电量的两倍，且未来这一需求还将持续攀升。 随着人工智能热潮加速推进，人们纷纷猜测，公用事业公司将如何满足大型科技公司不断攀升的电力需求。以Meta（《财富》美国500强排名第22位）为例，区域公用事业公司安特吉（Entergy）将新建三座燃气涡轮机，总装机容量达2.3吉瓦——这是该地区数十年来首次扩建此类设施。此举引发双重反对声浪：一方面，用户担心用电成本会上涨；另一方面，气候倡导者担忧这会导致绿色能源目标出现倒退。 在人工智能主导地位的争夺战里，公用事业公司已然成为超大规模科技公司市场的“守门人”。它们必须权衡两方面因素：一方面，是为前景尚不明朗的新兴行业开展大规模资本投资所能获取的收益；另一方面，则是未来数十年可能面临的电费上涨及资产搁浅（即因技术或市场变动，致使投资建成的资产无法收获预期收益）风险。 州监管机构于8月20日批准了安特吉的计划，比预期提前两个月，这一决策可能为未来公用事业公司与大型科技公司在合作新建发电厂方面的交易树立标杆，尤其是在土地成本较低的乡村地区。 路易斯安那州公共服务委员会委员达万特·刘易斯（Davante Lewis）告诉《财富》杂志：“这笔交易可能向其他州发出信号，展示数据中心在管理与运营方面的正确路径。这将成为美国全国范围内的测试案例。我从投资者、信贷机构以及其他数据中心从业者那里都听到过类似的说法——Meta这笔交易的最终成果，很可能会为所有类似项目搭建起框架。” Meta正在推平路易斯安那州里奇兰教区的大片土地，用于建设其数据中心园区。图片来源：Meta 以Meta的Hyperion为范本 Hyperion项目虽获得了当地政界的广泛支持，却也成功促使部分环保主义者和大型石油公司联合起来表示反对，后者担忧炼油厂和石化厂的电力成本会因此上升。 “我们很清楚，当前局势十分复杂。”克拉克表示，同时提到了当地民众立场的矛盾之处，“一些在这片土地上世代生活的居民，因项目开发而觉得自己将流离失所；但与此同时，对于项目是否推进，我们实际上并无话语权。” Louisiana Energy Users Group（包括埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）、雪佛龙（Chevron）和壳牌（Shell））指出，该项目将致使安特吉在路易斯安那州的能源需求增加30%，给现有公用事业用户带来前所未有的财务风险。 尽管争议不断，位列《财富》美国500强第355位的安特吉，如今已获得该州公共服务委员会（PSC）的正式批准，得以推进燃气发电厂建设项目。公共服务委员会是由5名民选成员组成的机构，负责监管该州公用事业，而刘易斯是唯一投出反对票的成员。此次听证会也引发了全美范围内悬而未决的问题：究竟多少能源才算足够？各州能否承担拒绝大规模经济开发投资所带来的风险？此外，在中国深度求索（DeepSeek）证明人工智能技术能够以更低成本实现更高效率之后，当前这种对能源的“狂热追逐”是否可能建立在泡沫之上？ 目前美国已拥有约3800个数据中心（其中多数是在早期云计算热潮时期建成的），规模最大的数据中心集群集中在弗吉尼亚州所谓的“数据中心走廊”——那里有500座数据中心，可便捷接入光纤网络以实现高速数据传输。然而，与支撑人工智能运行所需的设施相比，这些数据中心大多规模较小。仅今年一年，超大规模科技公司就宣布投入数千亿美元，以满足生成式人工智能不断攀升的需求。 2025年，亚马逊、谷歌、微软这三家科技巨头各自计划投入750亿至1000亿美元用于数据中心建设——如此庞大的投入规模，在数年前定会让任何一位经济学家都感到难以置信。扎克伯格表示，Meta今年在数据中心方面的预算约为700亿美元（较去年的280亿美元实现了大幅跃升），且随着Meta在“超级智能”领域“下重注”，2026年这一预算预计还会“大幅增长”。 这些项目对新增电力的需求惊人。美国能源部（U.S. Department of Energy）近期发布的一份报告估算，到2028年，数据中心对电网的需求或将增至当前的3倍，耗电量最高或将占到全美总用电量的12%。OpenAI的星门计划于今年1月获得1000亿美元的前期投资，用于在得克萨斯州建设总投资达5000亿美元的数据中心园区，该项目计划新建超100座燃气发电厂，为该园区及其他项目供电——尽管其中多数项目可能永远无法落地。即便如此，行业研究机构Enverus预测，未来五年将有约46吉瓦的燃气发电装机容量投入使用，新建规模将增长20%。 专家一致认为，全美范围内确实亟待提升电力产能。能源经济与金融分析研究所（Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis，简称IEEFA）能源分析师凯西·孔克尔（Cathy Kunkel）表示，关键在于，我们并不清楚确切的增量需求。 美国电力需求在过去15年维持稳定，但去年增长了3%，创下本世纪以来第五高的年度增幅。未来数年，电力需求预计仍将持续攀升。 孔克尔指出，Meta与安特吉为满足这一需求制定的计划“具有开创性意义”。 在Meta项目的推动下，安特吉股价已创下历史新高。与此同时，Meta承担了里奇兰教区项目的大部分前期成本。 根据合同，Meta将在前15年内承担这座总投资达32亿美元的燃气发电厂的电力成本——这一期限比常见的10年合同更长，但未达批评者所要求的25年——同时还将承担部分输电成本。此外，尽管环保组织仍持反对意见，Meta还承诺在路易斯安那州建设总装机容量达1.5吉瓦的太阳能和电池储能设施。 刘易斯表示，这样的合作安排可能会向市场传递出信号——这就是“新黄金标准”。但对反对者而言，这无疑是危险信号。 “问题在于，这将开创先例。”Alliance for Affordable Energy的洛根·伯克（Logan Burke）在8月20日作证时表示，“这样的合作安排使得我们所有人——包括本州全体选民与公用事业用户——都受制于两家企业之间的非公开合同。” 目前，弗吉尼亚州、得克萨斯州、加利福尼亚州已掀起数据中心与燃气发电厂建设热潮，并且这一趋势正逐步向全美各地扩散，包括更多乡村地区。 过度建设风险还是供应短缺担忧？ 该项目的庞大规模及其所需的资源投入已引发路易斯安那州部分人士的警觉，该州电力电网本就十分脆弱。 今年5月，路易斯安那州南部超10万户家庭因电力供需失衡而遭遇停电。 “里奇兰教区的数据中心将成为全球规模最大的数据中心，”塞拉俱乐部（Sierra Club）路易斯安那州分会协调员玛吉·维克奈尔-普雷（Margie Vicknair-Pray）表示，“我们如何保障停电不会愈发频繁地发生？我们至今尚未完全明晰数据中心对土地、资源以及当地居民的影响。” 尽管Meta曾作出建设更多可再生能源项目的非约束性承诺，但路易斯安那州议会近期通过了一项新法案，将天然气纳入“绿色能源”定义范畴——这意味着扎克伯格等人可将安特吉的燃气涡轮机算作“绿色能源设施”。 燃气发电厂还面临其他难题：全球供应链中燃气涡轮机的制造能力出现短缺，未来五年的燃气涡轮机基本已售罄。 由于该州绕过了标准且耗时更长的审批流程，刘易斯对安特吉与Meta是否确实需要额外的涡轮机提出质疑。“坦率来讲，我们为何只将目光聚焦于发电设施的扩建？”他反问，而忽视了电网能效提升与灵活性方面的考量。他警告称，Meta有可能提前退出项目，最终让电力用户承担超支费用。 安特吉公司发言人布兰登·斯卡迪利（Brandon Scardigli）向《财富》杂志透露：“就当下而言，燃气发电是成本最低且合理可行的选项，能够满足Meta这类大型数据中心24小时不间断的电力需求。” 另一个不确定因素在于，市场对计算效率与能源效率提升的预期。孔克尔得出了一个必然结论：这些项目的能耗终将降低，“要么是技术日益高效所致，要么是因效率未达预期而走向破产”。 这或许意味着，公用事业公司与大型科技企业可能会发现，自己投入巨额资金新建的燃气发电设施，最终沦为无人需要的闲置资产。 Meta展示其数据中心内呈蓝色调的冷存储设施。图片来源：Meta 其他考量因素及选址？ 随着大型数据中心在全美乡村地区不断扩张，维克奈尔-普雷对其可能带来的影响提出质疑：空气与噪音污染会给农场主和牧场主带来怎样的影响？尤其是巨大的用水量，是否会威胁到他们的生计？ “水资源将如何分配？”她问道，“倘若农民无法为作物进行灌溉，又该如何？” 无党派智库能源创新（Energy Innovation）建议，超大规模科技公司应优先投资可再生能源与电池储能项目，仅在必要时将部分新建燃气发电作为备用电源来使用。 能源创新的电力政策高级总监迈克·奥博伊尔（Mike O’Boyle）认为，建设过多新燃气涡轮机将带来不必要的风险。“我清楚当前的行业环境，无论是联邦层面还是行业内部，都主张‘大建特建’，力求以最快速度推进项目。”但他强调必须将成本问题纳入考量。“我们正处于资源有限的环境中，供应远低于需求，这导致价格飙升。” 除弗吉尼亚州外，数据中心目前主要集中在得克萨斯州和加利福尼亚州等人口大州。但对开发者而言，数据中心的一大吸引力在于，它能为里奇兰教区这类远离港口与机场的经济欠发达地区带来工业发展机遇。 Enverus能源分析师亚当·罗宾逊（Adam Robinson）研究了未来数据中心建设的潜在走向。他表示，开发者会从多方面进行综合考量：电力与土地的价格及可获得性、电网与光纤网络的连接情况，以及接入电网所需的时长。 罗宾逊预测，PJM Interconnection（宾夕法尼亚州-新泽西州-马里兰州）所在区域（从新泽西州经“铁锈地带”[指美国东北部及中西部传统工业区]延伸至伊利诺伊州）将迎来大量建设项目。该区域凭借具有竞争力的电力市场、良好的连接性及高速数据传输能力，正吸引超大规模科技公司入驻。 他还指出，那些寻求大面积廉价土地的开发者，也将视线投向了美国西部；而提供服务器托管服务的企业及小型开发者，则更关注得克萨斯州与美国南部腹地的廉价土地及税收优惠政策——例如，路易斯安那州豁免了Meta项目的销售税。 克拉克牧师深知，无论是在里奇兰教区还是其他任何地方，科技进步都是不可阻挡的趋势。 “事情已然发生，”他说道，“所以我们期望能充分利用这一机遇。”（财富中文网） 译者：中慧言-王芳 On a quiet patch of former farmland in northeastern Louisiana, a fleet of excavators has leveled more than 2,000 acres of reddish clay earth. This is rural Richland Parish, once a floodplain tangled with meandering bayous and wild canebrake where black bears still wander and a quarter of the 20,000 residents live below the poverty line. Enter Meta—the sixth-largest company in the world by market cap. The tech giant is keen on making Richland home to its wildest AI aspirations—courtesy of a tremendous amount of new gas-fired power. The region has ample land and sits adjacent to Louisiana’s huge Haynesville Shale gas field. In December, construction began on Meta’s biggest-yet data center: a $10 billion complex of nine buildings, housing bank upon bank of servers that will take up over 4 million square feet, an area larger than Disneyland. Meta chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t stopping there. He dubbed the project “Hyperion” in July—a data center “supercluster” that eventually could use the energy equivalent of 4 million homes and become the world’s biggest data center project. Zuckerberg said Hyperion would cover a “significant part of the footprint of Manhattan.” The project entails more than 2 gigawatts of computing capacity—Zuckerberg said it could eventually expand to 5 gigawatts—programmed to train open-source large language models. Meta lagged in the AI race with previous flops and the multibillion-dollar “Metaverse” boondoggle. Now he’s framing Hyperion and his construction spree as the pursuit of “superintelligence,” while poaching AI talent using $250 million pay packages and buying a 49% stake in Scale AI. It’s the latest in a grandiose game of Big Tech one-upmanship in AI, competing with the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI. “We are making all these investments because we have conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do,” Zuckerberg said in Meta’s July 30 earnings call. A Meta spokesperson told Fortune it’s impossible to say exactly what the complex will power since it’s unclear how AI will have evolved when it opens in 2030. The sheer size has left locals in this quiet region stunned. “I think, like a lot of people, my initial reaction was kind of blown away that a site [so] rural was selected for something like that,” said Justin Clark, pastor of First Baptist Church in nearby Rayville. “As we started learning more about what it was and what the scope entailed, that feeling just continued. An amazement of, ‘Good grief.’” Clark looks forward to welcoming new workers to the area but admits it’s difficult to truly visualize the scope. At a recent chamber of commerce banquet, they were told it’s the largest construction site in North America: “That’s unbelievable,” he marveled. Altogether, Big Tech’s new data centers will be incredibly energy and water hungry. Keeping the Hyperion servers cool and functional will require twice the power of New Orleans—and eventually more. As AI’s boom shifts into ever-higher gears, speculation abounds about how utilities will quench Big Tech’s deepening thirst for electricity. In the case of Meta (22 on the Fortune 500), regional utility Entergy will build three new gas-fired turbines with a combined capacity of 2.3 gigawatts—the first such buildout in decades—sparking pushback from ratepayers worried about consumer costs and from climate advocates who fear a backslide from green energy goals. The scramble for AI dominance has positioned utilities as the gatekeepers of the hyperscaler market, weighing the benefits of massive capital investments for an emergent industry—whose future payoffs remain murky—versus potential rate hikes and the risk of stranded assets for decades to come. State regulators gave Entergy the green light Aug. 20—two months earlier than expected—potentially setting the template for future deals between utilities and Big Tech to build new power plants, increasingly in more rural locales with affordable land. Entergy and regulators called the deal a model for the nation’s data center and power proliferation. “This deal could signal to other states that this is how data centers should be governed and operated,” Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis told Fortune. “This would be a test across the nation. I’ve heard that from investors; I’ve heard that from credit agencies; I’ve heard that from fellow data centers—whatever comes out of the Meta deal may be the framework for them all.” Meta’s Hyperion as the template Hyperion has plenty of local political support, but it also managed to unite some environmentalists and Big Oil in opposition, the latter of which voiced concerns about increased power costs for their refineries and petrochemical plants. “We’re not naive to the fact that it is a complex situation,” said Clark, noting conflicting local loyalties. “Some people who’ve lived in that area for generations feel displaced because of the development. At the same time, we don’t have any real say on whether it’s going to happen.” The Louisiana Energy Users Group—including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell—said the project increases Entergy’s Louisiana energy demand by 30%, creating unprecedented financial risks to existing utility ratepayers. Regardless, Entergy (No. 355 on the Fortune 500) now has the official go-ahead for its gas plants from the Public Service Commission (PSC), the five-person elected body that regulates utilities in the state. Lewis was the only one to vote in opposition. The hearing raised the same questions looming over the nation: How much energy is enough? Can states risk turning down massive economic development investments? And, after the advent of China’s DeepSeek—proving AI can become cheaper and more efficient—could the stampede for power be built on a bubble? The country already counts about 3,800 data centers—many built during the earlier cloud-computing boom—with the biggest chunk concentrated in Virginia’s so-called Data Center Alley, where 500 facilities find easy access to fiber-optic connectivity for high transfer speeds. But most of those are relatively small compared to what’s needed to power AI. This year alone, hyperscalers announced hundreds of billions of dollars to feed the growing generative AI needs. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are investing anywhere from $75 billion to $100 billion each into building data centers in 2025—numbers that would have strained the imagination of any economist just a couple of years ago. Meta’s data center budget is about $70 billion—way up from $28 billion last year—and expected to “ramp significantly” more in 2026 as part of Meta’s “massive bet” on superintelligence, Zuckerberg said. These projects depend on an astonishing amount of new power. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy estimates data centers’ grid needs could triple by 2028, consuming up to 12% of the nation’s electricity. OpenAI’s Stargate received an upfront investment of $100 billion in January for the $500 billion data center complex proposed in Texas, where more than 100 new gas plants are proposed to power it and other projects—though many will never come to fruition. Still, industry research group Enverus projects the next five years will bring roughly 46 gigawatts of gas-fired electricity online, a 20% jump in new construction. Experts agree some surge in electric capacity nationwide is needed. It’s the exact extent that’s unknown, said Cathy Kunkel, energy analyst for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Electricity demand in the U.S. held steady for 15 years but, last year, it increased by 3%— marking the fifth-highest rise this century. More jumps are projected for years to come. Meta’s and Entergy’s plans to meet that demand are “precedent setting,” Kunkel said. Buoyed by the Meta project, Entergy’s stock has hit record highs. Meta, meanwhile, has taken on a significant chunk of the upfront costs in Richland. According to the contract, Meta will pay the power costs for the $3.2 billion gas plants for the first 15 years—more than the typical 10-year contract, but not as much as the 25 years critics sought—as well as some transmission costs. Meta also committed to help build 1.5 gigawatts of solar and battery power throughout Louisiana, despite the ongoing opposition from environmental groups. The arrangements could signal to the market this is the “new gold standard,” Lewis said. That’s a red flag for opponents. “The problem here is that this is going to set precedent,” Logan Burke, of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, testified Aug. 20. “This settlement puts all of us, all of your constituents and customers in the state, at the mercy of a non-public contract between two corporations.” Data centers and gas plants are booming in Virginia, Texas, California, and, increasingly, nationwide, including more rural locales. Risks of overbuilding or fears of shortages? The staggering scale of the project and the resource demands it entails have raised alarm bells for some in Louisiana, where the electric grid is already fragile. In May, over 100,000 south Louisiana customers lost power after demand outstripped supply. “The Richland data center is to be the largest in the world,” said Margie Vicknair-Pray, coordinator with the Sierra Club’s Louisiana chapter. “How can we ensure that blackouts won’t become more frequent? What we have yet to fully understand is the impact the data center will have on the land, our resources, and the people.” While Meta has a non-binding promise to build more renewable energy, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new law that adds natural gas to the definition of green energy, allowing Zuckerberg and others to count Entergy’s gas turbines as “green.” Gas-fired plants pose other hurdles. There’s a shortage of turbine manufacturing in the global supply chain. Gas turbines are essentially sold out for the next five years. With the state bypassing the standard, lengthier review process, Lewis questions whether Entergy and Meta need extra turbines. “Why are we only focusing, quite frankly, on generation buildup?” he wondered, rather than grid efficiency and flexibility. He warned of Meta potentially walking away early, leaving ratepayers stuck with excess costs. Entergy spokesman Brandon Scardigli told Fortune that “natural gas-fueled generation is the lowest reasonable cost option available that can support the 24/7 electrical demands of a large data center like Meta.” The other wild card is the expectation for improvements in computing and power efficiency. Kunkel concluded an inevitability. The projects will use less energy, she said, “either because they get more efficient or because they don’t and go bankrupt.” It could mean utilities—and Big Tech—find themselves pouring capital into new gas generation no one needs. What and where else? As huge data centers spread throughout rural locales nationwide, Vicknair-Pray questioned the impact of air and noise pollution on farmers and ranchers, and especially the massive water consumption that could impact their livelihoods. “How will the water be shared?” she asked. “And what happens if the farmers are unable to water their crops?” The nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation proposes that hyperscalers invest primarily in renewable energy and battery storage developments, with some new gas-fired power used only as needed for backup. Mike O’Boyle, senior director of electricity policy at Energy Innovation, believes building too many new gas turbines poses unnecessary risks. “I know the environment right now, federally and in the industry, is ‘Build, build, build,’ as fast as we can.” But costs must be considered. “We’re in a limited resource environment where supply is much lower than demand, and it’s causing prices to skyrocket.” Beyond Virginia, data centers currently are concentrated in the biggest states, such as Texas and California. But part of what makes data centers attractive to developers is they open industrial development for economically depressed areas that aren’t near ports or airports—such as Richland Parish. Adam Robinson, an energy analyst with Enverus, looked at where the buildout may head next. He said many factors are considered by developers: Power and land prices and availability, grid and fiber-optic connectivity, and the time it takes to connect to the grid. Robinson predicts a lot of development in the PJM Interconnection (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) region from New Jersey through the Rust Belt and into Illinois. The region is attracting hyperscalers thanks to competitive power markets, good connectivity, and high data-transfer speeds. Developers looking for large plots of affordable land also are looking West, while co-location and smaller developers are more focused on cheap land and tax incentives in Texas and the Deep South, Robinson said. Louisiana, for instance, exempted the Meta deal from sales taxes. Pastor Clark recognizes that tech progress is inevitable in Richland and everywhere else. “It is happening,” he said, “so we want to make the best of it.” 财富中文网所刊载内容之知识产权为财富媒体知识产权有限公司及/或相关权利人专属所有或持有。未经许可，禁止进行转载、摘编、复制及建立镜像等任何使用。