NATCHITOCHES – Gail Adams, community engagement coordinator for Applied Digital’s $3.6 billion Delta Forge 1 data center campus, spoke to several groups at Northwestern State University on Nov. 2 to present an overview of the project taking place on a 672-acre Rapides Parish site next to I-49 near Boyce.
The forum was sponsored by NSU’s Office of Economic Development and University Advancement to provide an opportunity for community leaders, students, faculty and staff to learn about how the Delta Forge 1 project will impact job creation, workforce needs and infrastructure in the region.
NSU’s Office of Economic Development and University Advancement hosted Gail Adams, community engagement coordinator for Applied Digital, at a public forum to discuss the $3.6 billion Delta Forge 1 data center underway in Boyce. From left are NSU Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Drake Owen, Executive Director for Economic Development and University Advancement Laurie Morrow, Adams, NSU President James Genovese and Gwen Fontenot, director of Institutional Engagement and Economic Development at NSU.
Applied Digital is a technology landlord that builds large data center campuses and leases the space inside them to major tech companies. The customers use the space to run artificial intelligence, cloud and other digital infrastructure. Applied Digital provides services to keep the site running that include power and backup power generation, cooling systems, security, site maintenance and operations.
“People are very surprised to learn that data centers are not new,” Adams said. “They’ve been around for decades, but what is new is the speed and the size in which we are building them and that is why it’s getting so much attention.”
The largest concentration of data centers is in Virginia because of proximity to the federal government, which has been using data centers for years, Adams said. More recently, streaming television entertainment, cell phones, text messaging and Chat GPT all use data centers, which are built for three different purposes.
Traditional data centers are general purpose facilities that serve cloud, enterprise and internet workloads such as those used for banking, commerce and the medical field. Specialized blockchain facilities house computing hardware for cryptocurrency. AI factories, such as the Delta Forge 1 facility in Boyce, are designed to turn large scale power into operational AI capacity. It provides the power, cooling, security and operations needed to keep modern AI systems running. Applied Digital projects that local taxing bodies will get $575.5 million in cumulative payments over the next 27 years.
Power for the Boyce facility will be coordinated by a partnership with CLECO that is building a substation for the site. Water will be circulated through a closed-loop system that circulates through the system and is reused. The company uses setbacks and sound studies to understand sound impact and make adjustments.
Construction of the facility began this past January and is expected to be complete in November 2027 with operations possibly beginning in the spring of 2028. The construction phase is projected to employ a peak of 1,000 workers and when complete support about 200 permanent jobs for engineers, electricians, plumbers and security personnel.
