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# No art to these data center deals
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/ai-data-centers-gov-jeff-landry-loulsiana-art-of-the-deal-donald-trump/
- Published: 2026-09-01T02:36:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-01T02:36:31.000Z
- Description: Gov. Landry embraced Trump's playbook on data centers. He skipped a few chapters.
- Author: JR Ball

Louisiana is throwing itself at AI data centers like it's the last dance at the prom. Across the dance floor, states that already said yes are starting to wonder if they should've played harder to get.

**Why it matters:** Louisiana has doled out more tax breaks than it can accurately track in pursuit of data center dominance, yet every dollar rebated and every property tax mill nullified is one less dollar for schools, roads or the next budget crunch.

**Slow learner:** Gov. Jeff Landry may be a close ally of President Donald Trump, but it's pretty obvious, based on his data center negotiations, that the governor has yet to master "Trump: The Art of the Deal."

- Trump's 1987 best-seller outlines 11 guidelines for success: think big, protect the downside, maximize your options, know your market, use your leverage, enhance your location, get the word out, fight back, deliver the goods and talk big, contain the costs and have fun.

**Land rush:** Louisiana isn't landing one data center; it's landing four, and the checks keep getting bigger.

- Meta's Hyperion in Richland Parish has [grown from $10 billion to more than $50 billion](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/business/meta-data-center-louisiana-takeaways.html?ref=redeyebr.com).
- Amazon and STACK Infrastructure are building [$18 billion](https://www.wwltv.com/article/tech/amazon-plans-3rd-data-center-in-nw-louisiana-bringing-investment-to-18b/289-769becae-0dea-4b16-baa9-50a34297086b?ref=redeyebr.com) in campuses across Caddo and Bossier parishes.
- Hut 8's River Bend campus in West Feliciana Parish, anchored by an [Anthropic lease](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/hut-8-signs-245mw-capacity-deal-with-fluidstack-as-part-of-multi-gigawatt-partnership-with-anthropic/?ref=redeyebr.com), runs $10 billion to $12 billion—the closest of the four to Baton Rouge.
- Applied Digital's Delta Forge 1 in Rapides Parish adds another $3.6 billion to $7.2 billion, and has already drawn [protesters into the streets of Boyce](https://www.ksla.com/2026/07/19/this-is-our-town-protesters-rally-against-rapides-parish-data-center/?ref=redeyebr.com).

**Buyer's remorse:** States that already got what they wanted are having second thoughts.

- Virginia, home to [Data Center Alley](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2026/07/13/power-bill-fears-drove-virginias-first-in-nation-data-center-tax/?ref=redeyebr.com), joins Texas, Georgia, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois and Arizona among states that have either [rolled back incentives](https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/states-offer-tax-breaks-ai-data-centers-americans-dont-want/6507973/?ref=redeyebr.com), are weighing scaling them back or have added new offset measures to existing deals.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican, is getting especially tough, [effectively freezing](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/03/texas-data-center-project-audit-greg-abbott/?ref=redeyebr.com) all new data center grid connections in August pending a statewide audit.
- Arizona went even further, enacting a [three-year moratorium](https://www.constructionowners.com/insights/data-center-tax-incentives-state-by-state-whos-still-giving-whos-taking-back?ref=redeyebr.com) on its sales tax break.

**Let's break it down, "Art of the Deal"-style:**

**Thinking big:** Give Landry this one. He's chasing the biggest deals he can find, no argument necessary.

- [LED's own branding](https://www.opportunitylouisiana.gov/data-center?ref=redeyebr.com) is built entirely around landing the biggest possible projects, and rewriting state law to land a $50 billion campus is thinking big by any definition.

**Delivering an image:** This is one lesson Landry has down cold.

- Confetti in Shreveport, "energy dominance" messaging, a governor bragging the state [rewrote its laws at breakneck pace](https://thehayride.com/2026/04/louisiana-turns-data-center-incentive-playbook-toward-aerospace/?ref=redeyebr.com) instead of explaining that fact away. That's truthful hyperbole as a governing style.

**Getting leverage:** This is where the deal loses its art.

- [**Act 730's**](https://legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1387051&ref=redeyebr.com) **sales tax rebate runs for 20 years, renewable to 30, for just $200 million invested and 50 permanent jobs.** No wage floor, no clawback, no reporting required—Meta needs only 500 jobs by 2035 for a $50 billion campus.
- NDAs aren't new to economic development, but Landry has taken them to new and expansive heights. A [2024 law expanded](https://lailluminator.com/2026/05/07/data-center-2/?ref=redeyebr.com) local officials' authority to sign NDAs, and Landry's "Louisiana Lightning Speed" order allowed the state to [bypass independent review](https://www.wwno.org/coastal-desk/2026-04-21/advocates-cite-lack-of-transparency-rising-costs-as-regulators-fast-track-second-meta-data-center?ref=redeyebr.com). As a result, some legislators voted on Meta's enabling legislation without knowing the terms of the deal.
- Ohio and Georgia show what real leverage looks like: [mandatory take-or-pay contracts](https://www.aepohio.com/company/about/rates/data-center-tariff/?ref=redeyebr.com) and [utility-backed rate freezes](https://psc.ga.gov/site/downloads/datacenterfactsheet.pdf?ref=redeyebr.com). Louisiana asked for neither.

**Protecting the downside:** Louisiana didn't plan for what happens if this goes sideways, and it's still finding out.

- The Department of Revenue projects [$1.68 billion](https://www.aol.com/articles/louisiana-unable-project-future-cost-171407000.html?ref=redeyebr.com) in lost sales tax this year, $1.71 billion next, and admits it can't project further. Meta alone could pocket [$3.6 billion](https://lailluminator.com/2026/05/07/data-center-2/?ref=redeyebr.com) over a decade.
- Entergy's ratepayer guarantee may be weaker than advertised: Meta's [new financing structure](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/business/meta-data-center-louisiana-takeaways.html?ref=redeyebr.com) lets it exit after just four years, and regulators just [blocked a subpoena](https://www.wwno.org/politics/2026-08-12/louisiana-psc-kills-ruling-that-would-force-meta-to-turn-over-key-data-center-information?ref=redeyebr.com) for Meta's data—after records showed an Entergy executive [ghostwrote](https://www.wrkf.org/2026-08-11/tracked-changes-an-entergy-exec-ghostwrote-louisiana-psc-motions-supporting-meta-hyundai?ref=redeyebr.com) the PSC's own motions.

**Fighting back:** Landry tried this one. It didn't land cleanly.

- He signed a [ratepayer-protection order](https://www.klfy.com/top-stories-news/gov-landry-to-announce-new-initiative-to-protect-louisiana-ratepayers/amp/?ref=redeyebr.com) in June after backlash built.
- PSC commissioners are independently elected, not appointed. [Davante Lewis](https://wgno.com/news/louisiana/gov-landry-to-announce-new-initiative-to-protect-louisiana-ratepayers/amp/?ref=redeyebr.com), who represents Baton Rouge, called the order's diagnosis right but its fixes "flimsy at best."

**The rest:** Maximizing options and knowing the market doesn't really apply here; Landry certainly enhanced the locations with massive tax breaks and subsidies; he's certainly not containing costs for the state; but he is delivering the goods with signed deals.

**The bottom line:** Louisiana wanted the data centers badly enough to skip the fine print. Now it's stuck hoping the industry's good faith covers what the deal didn't. Maybe Landry learned something from Trump after all.