Applied Digital, a digital infrastructure developer based in Dallas, is investing $3.6 billion to develop an artificial intelligence campus in Rapides Parish.
State officials formally announced the project at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The campus, called Delta Forge 1, will be purpose-built for large-scale AI training and inference workloads, according to Louisiana Economic Development.
Applied Digital will create 200 direct new jobs with salaries 150% above the state average wage. The project will support more than 1,000 construction jobs at peak construction.
Delta Forge 1 will initially include two facilities totaling 300 megawatts of critical IT load across 300 acres.
Cleco, the local electric utility, will power the campus. The campus will make use of a closed-loop cooling system, which recirculates the same coolant in a continuous loop, eliminating the need for constant water replenishment.
Site development on the campus began in January. Initial operations are expected to begin in mid-2027.
Applied Digital qualified for Louisiana’s state and local sales and use tax exemption on qualifying purchases or leases of data center equipment.
“Global companies are choosing Louisiana because they see a state where every region is prepared to deliver at scale, with the infrastructure, workforce and leadership needed to support the technologies and industries shaping the future economy,” Gov. Jeff Landry says.
Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark, said in March that Applied Digital was in talks with a potential hyperscaler tenant for the data center, but no tenant was named in Tuesday’s announcement.
