672-acre site acquired for $26.9M near Boyce with AI/HPC positioning; local authorities advanced industrial zoning/PILOT mechanics while civil packages mobilized along I-49. Scope narratives span early-phase infrastructure spend through multi-billion-dollar headlines tied to financing packages.
What matters first for Applied Digital Project Lightning
Applied Digital's Louisiana campus is Delta Forge 1, also tracked on LouisianAI under Project Lightning. Public company and Louisiana Economic Development materials describe 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, 200 direct on-site jobs, and 1,000 peak construction jobs, with first operations targeted for mid-2027. Follow this profile for the current status, utility posture, water or permit controls, source links, and alias terms that engines and readers use for the same campus.
What is Delta Forge 1 in Louisiana? Applied Digital's Louisiana campus is Delta Forge 1, also tracked on LouisianAI under Project Lightning. Public company and Louisiana Economic Development materials describe 430 MW of total utility power, up to 300 MW of critical IT load, 200 direct on-site jobs, and 1,000 peak construction jobs, with first operations targeted for mid-2027. The canonical local profile is this page: /data-centers/applied-digital-project-lightning.
The important search bridge is naming: Delta Forge 1 is Applied Digital's company-announced name, while Project Lightning is the Louisiana watch-queue alias. The power answer should route to this profile, the Applied Digital operator hub, Rapides Parish, Cleco service, Act 730 posture, and the difference between the company's 500-plus-acre campus framing and the state's 300-acre initial-buildout framing.
Delta Forge 1 is Applied Digital's company-announced name for the Louisiana AI factory campus that LouisianAI also tracks under the Project Lightning alias. It is the Applied Digital campus near Boyce in Rapides Parish.
Applied Digital Project Lightning Louisiana is LouisianAI's canonical project profile for Applied Digital's Rapides Parish AI factory campus. The company calls the first phase Delta Forge 1; LouisianAI keeps Project Lightning as the Louisiana tracking alias so both searches resolve to the same source-backed page.
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 is designed for 430 MW of total utility power, enabling up to 300 MW of critical IT load in its initial two-building phase. Cleco is the named utility counterpart in Louisiana's public rollout materials.
Applied Digital's Louisiana AI factory is in Rapides Parish near Boyce. LouisianAI routes Boyce data center, Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, and Project Lightning searches to this canonical project profile and the Rapides Parish hub.
Applied Digital and Louisiana Economic Development both say initial Delta Forge 1 operations are targeted for mid-2027, subject to construction execution, utility delivery, and final site buildout.
672-acre site acquired for $26.9M near Boyce with AI/HPC positioning; local authorities advanced industrial zoning/PILOT mechanics while civil packages mobilized along I-49. Scope narratives span early-phase infrastructure spend through multi-billion-dollar headlines tied to financing packages.
| Claim | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Capex range | $26,900,000 to $7,000,000,000 [1][2][3][4][5][6] | Rapides Parish Journal |
| Power capacity | Verification needed [1][2][3][4][5][6] | Rapides Parish Journal |
| Site size | 672. acres [1][2][3][4][5][6] | Rapides Parish Journal |
| Jobs | 200 permanent · 1500 construction [1][2][3][4][5][6] | Rapides Parish Journal |
| Water/cooling source | Closed-loop cooling cited in local reporting [1][2][3][4][5][6] | Rapides Parish Journal |
| Sales/use tax and PILOT framework | Louisiana Act 730 and local PILOT structures are tracked as separate legal/economic artifacts. [7] | Louisiana Legislature |
| Entity aliases | Applied Digital Project Lightning, Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Boyce data center, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, Applied Digital Louisiana AI factory, and Project Lightning AI factory campus all point to the same Applied Digital campus near Boyce in Rapides Parish. [3][1][2][4][6][5] | Applied Digital / SEC EDGAR |
Edit the inputs to compare an ad-valorem proxy against a PILOT discount, construction labor hours, and peak power demand relative to an editable parish consumption baseline.
Ad-valorem proxy
$386,479,500
PILOT proxy
$212,563,725
Construction job hours
6,240,000
Demand vs parish use
0x
Delta Forge 1 is Applied Digital's company-announced name for the Louisiana AI factory campus that LouisianAI also tracks under the Project Lightning alias. It is the Applied Digital campus near Boyce in Rapides Parish.
Applied Digital Project Lightning Louisiana is LouisianAI's canonical project profile for Applied Digital's Rapides Parish AI factory campus. The company calls the first phase Delta Forge 1; LouisianAI keeps Project Lightning as the Louisiana tracking alias so both searches resolve to the same source-backed page.
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 is designed for 430 MW of total utility power, enabling up to 300 MW of critical IT load in its initial two-building phase. Cleco is the named utility counterpart in Louisiana's public rollout materials.
Applied Digital's Louisiana AI factory is in Rapides Parish near Boyce. LouisianAI routes Boyce data center, Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital Rapides Parish AI factory, and Project Lightning searches to this canonical project profile and the Rapides Parish hub.
Applied Digital and Louisiana Economic Development both say initial Delta Forge 1 operations are targeted for mid-2027, subject to construction execution, utility delivery, and final site buildout.
Applied Digital Project Lightning is tracked at Verification needed and 672 acres, with Verification needed of power capacity where public sources support the number.
Current tracked figures show 200 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs, subject to source verification.
A PILOT is a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes structure negotiated locally; this page tracks the public artifacts needed to compare ad-valorem exposure with negotiated payments.
Site acquired — early development. Exact phase delivery dates remain tied to operator updates, utility milestones, parish permits, and regulatory filings.
Applied Digital Project Lightning is tracked in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
Applied Digital is the operator listed for Applied Digital Project Lightning.
Water use is tracked as a verification item because definitive cooling and withdrawal figures usually appear in permits, utility exhibits, or operator environmental disclosures.
Louisiana data-center incentives can include Act 730 sales/use tax treatment and local PILOT structures; the exact package should be verified against state, parish, and operator documents.
The page tracks substations, transmission watch corridors, and utility filings as source-backed signals rather than engineering-grade interconnection maps.
Confidence labels distinguish seed, reported, and verified claims so readers can separate early intelligence from document-backed facts.
Cite this page or subscribe to filings that mention Applied Digital Project Lightning.
Local verification of civil mobilization / staging posture.
Local governance artifact covering PILOT advancement.
Primary securities disclosure anchoring land acquisition financing.
Regional reporting tying parish rezoning actions to Boyce site.
Primary parish civil records portal for instrument retrieval.
Early-phase reporting naming Applied Digital pursuit.
Primary state-law lookup surface for Act 730 sales/use tax exemption and local PILOT diligence.