ALEXANDRIA — Applied Digital Corporation is bringing a $3.6 billion artificial intelligence campus to Rapides Parish, Gov. Jeff Landry announced Tuesday.

The facility, called Delta Forge 1, is built for "large-scale AI training and inference workloads," according to Louisiana Economic Development. It will initially be two facilities, which will need a total of 300 megawatts of critical IT load, across approximately 300 acres with direct access to energy infrastructure.

The campus is expected to directly support 200 full-time on-site jobs with salaries of around $90,000 a year. LED estimates the project will also generate more than 1,000 construction jobs at peak construction and an additional 218 indirect jobs, for a total of 418 potential new job opportunities in the region.

The investment is a billion dollars more than all private investment in the central Louisiana region in the last 10 years combined. 

"We're honored to bring Delta Forge 1 to Rapides Parish and we are committed to being a supportive, engaged partner in this community for the long haul," Applied Digital Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins said in an LED news release. "Our hope is that this campus becomes a source of opportunity and pride for the people of Central Louisiana for generations to come."

Cleco will provide power to support the campus. The company's president and CEO, Bill Fontenot, called it the largest economic development opportunity in Cleco's more-than-90-year history.

Landry pointed to the project as part of a broader push for Louisiana's economic growth.

"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," he said.

Applied Digital designs, builds and operates data centers for AI, cloud and high-performance computing workloads and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

WATCH THE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE: