Venture Global proposes $17.2 billion off-grid power network for Louisiana AI data centers

Venture Global wants to supply AI data centers in Louisiana without connecting them to the public power grid. The liquefied natural gas exporter has proposed a 10-gigawatt private network near its terminals. Its estimated investment is about $17.2 billion, according to a securities filing cited by The Center Square, which reported the project October 20.

The proposal offers a route around a long wait for electricity service. Connecting to Louisiana’s grid typically takes five to seven years, The Center Square reported. Venture Global instead intends to supply the computing sites through its own generation network, on company-owned land near its terminals in Plaquemines and Cameron parishes.

The company is starting with experience running power infrastructure for its export business. CEO Mike Sabel said Venture Global already operates a 4.5-gigawatt private grid. He pointed to that system as evidence of the company’s ability to build the complex energy infrastructure behind its proposed move into AI.

Venture Global says it has signed agreements with GE Vernova and Baker Hughes to buy 16 natural-gas turbines. Those turbines could generate up to 11.5 gigawatts of electricity. That equipment capacity is distinct from the 10-gigawatt figure used to describe the planned AI power network.

Land around the existing terminals is another part of the proposal. The Plaquemines facility occupies 630 acres along the Mississippi River. The Cameron Parish export plant sits on 1,582 acres along the Calcasieu Ship Channel. The company intends to locate the data centers near those facilities.

The network would operate entirely in what Venture Global calls “Island Mode”: an independent electricity system powered by the company’s own natural-gas supplies. The design combines fuel supply and electricity generation with land, data centers and supporting infrastructure, rather than relying on a public utility to deliver power.

A closed-loop water system would cool the data centers, the company says. Venture Global also says the sites would place no demand or extra costs on local public utilities. Those are commitments about the proposed system, not results from an operating AI network.

By providing Island-Mode power generation, gas supply, closed-loop water systems, thousands of acres of land, data centers, and other necessary infrastructure, Venture Global is creating a vertically integrated AI utility that could solve for the many chokepoints associated with the AI buildout

Mike Sabel, Venture Global CEO

The plan has drawn opposition from Fishermen Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage. In a statement emailed to The Center Square, executive director Robyn Thigpen, a Calcasieu resident, criticized the prospect of more gas combustion for AI infrastructure on Louisiana’s coast. She described the region as already burdened by industrial expansion, pollution, dredging and coastal destruction.

Thigpen said the group would demand rigorous environmental review, an analysis of cumulative emissions and meaningful public participation. Her response challenges the project on community and environmental grounds, rather than the public-utility demand and cost issues addressed by Venture Global’s assurances.

The next procurement step is expected before the end of 2026, when Venture Global anticipates placing its first purchase order for a power island. The company expects delivery of all 16 turbines by the end of 2034. That is an equipment-delivery timetable, not an announced opening date for the full data-center network.

Sabel also framed the turbine purchases as preserving a choice about deployment. They would expand power capacity available for new computing “as and when we elect,” he said. The announced agreements therefore support a planned buildout whose pace remains a company decision.