Meta is committing another 50-billion dollars to its Richland Parish data center, expanding the campus to nearly ten million square feet and five gigawatts of IT capacity. Jeff Palermo has the story…
Cut 1 (35) “…I’m Jeff Palermo.”
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If you need a job, the “help wanted” sign is out in West Feliciana Parish. Andrew Greenstein reports.
Cut 2 (34) “…I’m Andrew Greenstein.”
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Meta is doubling its AI data center in Richland Parish. President and Vice Chairman of Meta, Dina Powell McCormick, says they now plan to spend as much as 50-billion dollars on the project and related infrastructure, up from the ten billion it originally planned
Cut 3 (12) “…Richland Parish and beyond.”
Governor Landry says artificial intelligence continues to accelerate worldwide , the infrastructure powering it is expanding to meet the growing demand. He says with this investment, Meta is establishing the Richland Parish Data Center as the cornerstone of its global infrastructure and it puts Louisiana in a great spot too…
Cut 4 (10) “…the world.”
The site will encompass more than 32-hunred acres, more than four times larger than New York City’s Central Park. Landry says his administration has created an environment were companies can move quickly and build at scale..
Cut 5 (14) “…150 billion investment.” (applause)
The project will support 75-hundred construction jobs, one-thousand permanent jobs once it becomes fully operational in 2036.
There are concerns this massive AI data center in north Louisiana will increase electricity bills for residents, because of the amount of power it takes to run one of these facilities. But Landry says Meta and Entergy have come up with a plan for ratepayers not to bear the extra costs.
Cut 6 (12) “..infrastructure”
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It’s a wet start to the work week. LSU Health Climatologist Barry Keim says some parts of Louisiana had six to seven inches of rain on Saturday alone, and that rainy pattern will continue today and tomorrow.
Cut 7 (11) “…the same area.”
Keim says the prolonged rainfall raises the potential for certain major conditions, but other forms of severe weather are not expected for the time being.
Cut 8 (10) “…of weather conditions.”
Keim says the rain will clear out by the middle of this week; but that will not by any means make it any more comfortable to be outside.
Cut 9 (10) “…be pretty oppressive.”
With that high humidity, heat index values will enter the triple digits in the latter half of this week.
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The “help wanted” sign is out at the Hut 8 data center in West Feliciana Parish, and there will be a job fair tomorrow afternoon to fill scores of positions. Parish President Kenny Havard says the positions cover both immediate and future positions.
Cut 10 (06) “…15-hundred construction jobs.”
Havard says the job fair will be from three to six tomorrow afternoon at West Feliciana High School in St. Francisville.
Cut 11 (10) “…involved in it.”
Havard says the permanent jobs Hut 8 will be interviewing for are for skilled technical workers, and the salaries are quite lucrative.
Cut 12 (07) “…dollars a year.”
(The average salaries are between 130-thousand and 150-thousand dollars a year.) And Havard says in the months since, those figures have actually gone up from there.