A landmark agreement announced Friday between Entergy Louisiana and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — to build seven new power plants and dramatically expand Louisiana’s electrical grid underscores the state’s emergence as one of the nation’s premier destinations for artificial intelligence infrastructure, a race in which Rapides Parish is now an active competitor.
Friday’s announcement, issued from Rayville, revealed that Meta and Entergy Louisiana have agreed to a comprehensive buildout of generation, transmission and storage infrastructure for Meta’s hyperscale data center campus in Richland Parish. Paid entirely by Meta, the agreement adds seven new combined-cycle natural gas plants totaling more than 5,200 megawatts of generating capacity — roughly five times the average daily power consumption of the entire city of New Orleans — along with up to 2,500 megawatts of solar generation and approximately 240 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines connecting South Louisiana to North Louisiana and Arkansas.
Combined with a prior 2025 agreement, the two deals are expected to deliver approximately $2.65 billion in total savings to Entergy Louisiana customers over the life of the agreements — with Meta bearing its full cost of service.
“This agreement reflects what’s possible when strong partners align around long-term growth and value,” said Phillip May, Entergy Louisiana president and CEO. “We are making targeted investments that strengthen reliability, support economic development, and deliver meaningful benefits to customers — all while keeping energy rates affordable.”
Meta Vice President for Data Centers Rachel Peterson said the Richland Parish campus reflects the scale of the company’s AI ambitions. “We are building foundations for the future of AI innovation right here in the United States,” Peterson said.
Louisiana’s Data Center Map — And Where Rapides Fits
Friday’s Meta announcement is the latest in a series of massive technology investments reshaping Louisiana’s economy. Amazon announced in February a $12 billion multi-campus data center investment across Caddo and Bossier parishes in Northwest Louisiana, developed in partnership with STACK Infrastructure. Hut 8 is developing a $10 billion AI data center campus in West Feliciana Parish in Southeast Louisiana.
Rapides Parish is now positioned to join that list. Site work is actively underway on a 672-acre parcel along Interstate 49 near Boyce, where Applied Digital Corporation — a Dallas-based digital infrastructure developer that designs, develops and operates data centers for high-performance computing and AI industries — purchased the land in December 2025 for $26.9 million.
The project, known internally as Project Lightning, is anticipated to create 1,500 construction-related jobs and 200 permanent positions in its first year of operation, with an average annual wage of $65,000. The parcel has already been reclassified from agricultural to industrial use, with its assessed value adjusted from $257,350 to $25,287,000.
Applied Digital develops large-scale digital infrastructure and typically leases its facilities to major technology companies — known as hyperscalers — that operate massive AI computing networks. The identity of any prospective tenant at the Boyce site remains under nondisclosure agreements. England Airpark Executive Director Ralph Hennessy confirmed that Applied Digital is actively making site improvements and is in discussions with a potential tenant, though no agreement has been finalized.
On the power front, Applied Digital has been in discussions with Cleco, the regional electric utility, and power arrangements are described as substantially worked out. Louisiana Central CEO Chris Masingill, whose organization has been coordinating the Rapides Parish project with state officials, described the potential scope of the project as among the most consequential in the parish’s modern history.
The England Authority — Rapides Parish’s economic development district — approved the creation of England District Subdistrict No. 4 in February, an overlay district encompassing the Applied Digital property that allows local officials to issue bonds to finance project infrastructure and negotiate payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements — the same tools that Meta, Amazon and Hut 8 have used for their own Louisiana projects.
The Rapides Parish Journal will continue to monitor developments on the Boyce site and the broader Louisiana data center landscape.
Construction at Boyce data center site along I-49