Another data center is on its way to Louisiana. 

During a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Jeff Landry announced a $3.6 billion site headed for the state. 

“It really is a historic day for Central Louisiana,” Landry said. 

The journey to Tuesday’s announcement began about three years ago when Nvidia made an investment in Applied Digital.

Rapides Parish will be the new home for a data center owned by Applied Digital, an AI digital infrastructure firm from Dallas.

The firm calls the project Delta Forge One. Applied Digital announced that preparations for construction have begun and staff are being hired. 

“This project is going to create, when it’s done, 200 direct full-time jobs that pay approximately $90,000 a year,” Landry said. He added that the data center will diversify the regional economy and bring with it more opportunities for investment and growth. 

Applied Digital board director Richard Nottenburg said the arrival of the data center will come with over $500 million in “direct benefit” to Rapides Parish. He said Applied Digital will turn to local businesses for resources when building the data center. 

Chris Masingill, president and CEO of Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance — a connector and regional economic development organization for the 10 parishes of central Louisiana — said Applied Digital’s decision to build a data center in Rapides Parish was a victory for all of Central Louisiana. 

“This is a defining moment for Boyce, for Alexandria, for Rapides Parish and all of Central Louisiana,” Masingill said. 

Applied Digital purchased a 672-acre lot near Boyce, west of Alexandria, in December. In February, Rapides Parish’s economic development district approved the designation of a 672-acre chunk of land as England District Subdistrict No. 4. 

“This is a paradigm shift for Central Louisiana,” Nottenburg said. “It’s a totally transformational project that is going to have a very positive impact on the community.” 

Data centers spread across Louisiana 

The Applied Digital announcement follows a wave of planned and under-construction data centers in the state. 

Work has begun on Meta’s Hyperion campus data center in Richland Parish. Hut 8, a Miami-based AI data center host, has broken ground on a data center in West Feliciana Parish. And Amazon announced plans for a $12 billion investment on multiple complexes in northern Louisiana near Shreveport. 

Researchers in a report from last year said that the flood of new data centers in the South could lead to a “digital cancer alley.” Scientists from a nonprofit advocacy group say in an April report that the sudden glut of data centers in Louisiana threatens the state’s ability to keep costs for energy and other resources affordable. 

Outcry from neighbors in New Orleans East prompted the New Orleans City Council to approve a one-year moratorium on data center construction.

A celebratory pitch amid pushback

The Applied Digital press conference began with a singing of the national anthem and concluded with handheld confetti cannons let off by those on stage, like representatives from other partners in the venture, which included Louisiana Economic Development and Cleco Power. 

It was a celebration, though there was some acknowledgment of local pushback against data centers. 

“There’s going to be some naysayers,” Nottenburg said. “There’s always a lot of opposition going on right now with data centers.” 

According to cofounder Jason Zhang, Applied Digital specializes in a proprietary design for cooling data centers with liquid, as opposed to air, that only uses “very minimal water.” He added that the firm will “optimize the power usage for the sustainability aspect of the data center design.” 

Zhang said the journey to Tuesday’s announcement began about three years ago when Nvidia made an investment in Applied Digital. Nottenburg said the site will likely have three total buildings. 

He also spoke of Applied Digital’s data center in North Dakota, touting it as a successful experience the company can duplicate in Louisiana. 

“We’ve learned,” Nottenburg said. “This is not the first rodeo for us.”