10 Major Industrial Projects Underway in Louisiana in 2026

LAFAYETTE, La. — Louisiana is in the middle of the largest industrial building boom in its history, with tens of billions of dollars in data centers, steel mills, ammonia plants and LNG terminals under construction or newly announced across the state. State officials say Louisiana has secured more than $150 billion in corporate investment and roughly 16,000 new jobs in recent years, with that total expected to cross $200 billion within months.

Several of the projects are close enough to Acadiana to matter directly to Lafayette-area readers, including a possible SpaceX spaceport roughly 45 miles southwest of the city. But it's part of a massive boom happening across the state that has a lot of local communities buzzing.

It's not all positive buzz, however. One local group in Vermilion Parish is calling itself "StopSpaceX" and is pushing to reject the development at Pecan Island. Other citizen groups have raised concerns about the footprint of the big industrial projects, especially for the energy and water that the big data centers could consume. Some projections for the Meta data center, for example, estimate it would use more power than the city of New Orleans.

Still, there are a lot of economic benefits that could deeply impact communities in a positive way, something Governor Jeff Landry and Louisiana Economic Development have been emphasizing in press releases and media interviews. The economic boost could be coming right on time as the state lags behind the country in job creation and other economic measures.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest industrial projects either under construction or in the pipeline across Louisiana.