Las Cruces, NM (KKOB) – A public meeting over a Project Jupiter update in Las Cruces, got rowdy Wednesday as three people were arrested and a scuffle broke out between security staff, sheriff’s deputies and members of the public.
The data center, under construction in Santa Teresa for use by Oracle and OpenAI for training artificial intelligence models, has been part of controversy meetings for nearly a year as opposition to the data center and criticisms of the county’s vetting and oversight of the project have grown.
The Albuquerque Journal reports during Tuesday’s meeting, representatives from Oracle and the builder were scheduled to make a presentation to county commissioners about how many jobs and local hires had been made as part of the project construction. During the presentation representatives of the construction company Stack Infrastructure said close to 3,000 workers were on the Santa Teresa site at peak activity, including nearly 700 New Mexicans and 300 county residents, with thousands more construction jobs expected over the coming year. Oracle representatives said Project Jupiter is expected to reach almost $5 billion in long-term economic impact for the state and county including tax revenue, and capital investment.
Project Jupiter construction near Santa Teresa, NM
Courtesy: Project Jupiter
They reported that developers had already paid 80-percent of the $50 million committment to Doña Ana County to fund water infrastructure projects and the county has already collected $10 million in taxes from the project since September.
