Business is booming in a small Louisiana town as a huge Meta AI data center project brings in thousands of workers

Holy Tacos and other businesses are opening in Richland Parish as Meta builds its data center.

Tim Allen Meta is building its largest data center to date in northeast Louisiana.

Over 7,500 workers are expected to be on the construction site at the project's peak.

Residents are launching businesses to capitalize on the opportunity.

The construction workers building Meta's largest-ever data center are arriving in a tiny Louisiana town with more than specialized skills and manpower.

They've also got cash to spend.

It's a fact that local entrepreneurs are leveraging to build new businesses.

"It's been a good opportunity for everybody," David Rodgers, the cofounder of Ice Queen, a local business, told Business Insider.

"I tell people, you can't stop it unless you have $50 billion.

You might as well get on board and go with the flow." Meta is building its largest data center to date, Hyperion, in Louisiana's Richland Parish.

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Meta said the data center , dubbed Hyperion, will span nearly 10 million square feet in rural Holly Ridge and will support more than 7,500 jobs at peak construction.

That's a workforce larger than the population of Aspen, Colorado.

While the influx of workers is straining the local housing market and disrupting aspects of daily life, their presence has also boosted the region's economy.

Spinning straw into gold Holly Ridge is a very small sliver of the nearly 19,600 residents in Richland Parish , where agriculture has been the main industry for decades.