Side-by-side
Hut 8 River Bend AI Data Center Campus vs Applied Digital Project Lightning
Two Louisiana AI data center projects, compared on operator, parish, status, focus, and what to watch next. Click into either project for full detail and source citations.
| Attribute | Hut 8 River Bend AI Data Center Campus | Applied Digital Project Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Hut 8 | Applied Digital |
| Parent | Hut 8 Corp. | Applied Digital Corporation |
| Parish | West Feliciana Parish | Rapides Parish (near Boyce) |
| Status | Under construction — Phase I lease signed and water infrastructure committed | Under construction — Delta Forge 1 broke ground in January 2026 |
| Category | AI digital infrastructure campus | AI compute & high-performance computing |
| Summary | Hut 8's River Bend campus pairs a 245 MW Phase I AI lease with a longer runway toward 1 GW of potential utility capacity in West Feliciana Parish. Public company materials frame it as a $10B-class campus with 2027 delivery still dependent on infrastructure execution. | Applied Digital's Delta Forge 1 / Project Lightning campus is a $3.6 billion Rapides Parish AI factory build. Official materials describe 430 MW of utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, and initial operations targeted for mid-2027. |
| Why it matters | Key watch items are Entergy service milestones, Hut 8's $16M parish water-system expansion, closed-loop cooling claims, and how much of the 1 GW potential becomes commercialized beyond the 245 MW initial lease. | Watch Cleco delivery work, Act 730 documentation, and whether the next public record uses the company's 500-plus-acre campus framing or the state's 300-acre initial-build framing. Delta Forge 1 is central Louisiana's clearest hyperscale vendor signal. |
Full detail · Hut 8 River Bend AI Data Center Campus →Full detail · Applied Digital Project Lightning →
LouisianAI comparison pages cross-link source-backed project detail. For any commercial or regulatory decision, consult the primary filings linked from the project detail pages.