Hut 8 has secured a multibillion-dollar partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack, a deal that puts the company’s planned River Bend data center in West Feliciana Parish at the center of a large-scale push to accelerate the deployment of hyperscale AI infrastructure in the U.S.
At its River Bend campus, the Miami-based energy infrastructure firm will develop and deliver at least 245 megawatts—and potentially more than 1,000 megawatts—of data center capacity for Anthropic, best known for its Claude family of AI chatbots, using high-performance computing clusters operated by Fluidstack.
West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard frames the deal as a cornerstone investment for Louisiana’s growing data center and high-performance computing sector.
“It’s going to be great for our community and for the surrounding area,” Havard says. “We hope it’s going to have a regional effect. And statewide, this is an opportunity for the state to be first in something instead of last. We have a real opportunity here.”
Hut 8 has signed a 15-year, $7 billion lease with Fluidstack, whose computing clusters will be used by Anthropic to train and run its large language models.
The lease payments are backed by Google, which entered into its own strategic partnership with Anthropic in 2023. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are financing construction of the campus. Engineering and infrastructure work is being handled by Jacobs and Vertiv.
For West Feliciana, the financial upside is significant. Havard expects the parish to receive $90 million annually in lease payments.
“Who else would you want behind you? Google’s basically writing the checks for you, and then you’ve got J.P. Morgan,” Havard says. “There are a lot of big financial people behind this project. This is not a fly-by-night deal.”
Hut 8 and Fluidstack will initially develop 245 megawatts of data center capacity at the River Bend campus. Hut 8 has also granted Anthropic a right of first offer for up to 1,000 additional megawatts at the site if more power becomes available, and the two firms may jointly pursue up to 1,050 megawatts at other sites beyond West Feliciana in the future. In total, Hut 8 could ultimately deliver up to 2,295 megawatts of data center capacity for Anthropic.
The facility will be powered through an agreement with Entergy Louisiana, which will initially provide 330 megawatts of utility capacity. The data center’s water consumption, meanwhile, will be minimal compared to industry standards because the facility will use a “recirculating system,” Havard says.
According to Louisiana Economic Development, the River Bend campus is expected to begin operations in Q2 2027.
The first phase of the campus represents an investment of up to $10 billion, LED says, and is expected to support roughly 1,000 construction jobs at peak and create at least 75 direct new jobs once operations begin.
“River Bend demonstrates that Louisiana’s economic strategy is taking our state from plans to progress,” a statement from LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois reads. “This project will generate high-wage jobs and create pathways for Louisianans to build long-term careers in the industries of the future. It’s a clear example of how aligning policy, partnership and people translates into lasting opportunity.”
Construction of the campus has been underway for months, though state officials did not formally acknowledge the project until Wednesday morning. Havard says early infrastructure work is largely complete and that West Feliciana has no remaining permitting or regulatory hoops to jump through.
“On our end, we’re done,” he says. “As far as West Feliciana’s concerned, they’re ready to go.”
