(The Center Square) — Louisiana Economic Development has launched Louisiana Innovation, an initiative of LED looking to streamline growth, specifically in areas of technology throughout the state. Included in the Louisiana Innovation initiative are the Louisiana Growth Fund and a new AI Institute.
In Tuesday’s meeting between the Louisiana Economic Development and the Senate, Susan Bourgeois, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary, noted that the Louisiana Growth Fund is a $50 million co-invest fund.
The fund is federally funded for the first initial $50 million and supports technology startups across Louisiana. In their initial announcement, the LED noted that private equity and partners will match the funding, bringing the total investment to $100 million.
The state is looking to dive into AI with the newly launched Louisiana Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Aiming to be the center for AI research in the state, one of the first projects of the institute will be to help 5,000 small businesses in Louisiana integrate AI into their systems. The new institute will operate as a 501(c)(3).
The new LED AI development news comes months after Meta announced that Louisiana will become home to the new $10 billion AI center.
The latest projects were announced at the Super Bowl Innovation Day event. Bourgeois said the Super Bowl aimed to do three things: Use a worldwide stage to change the Louisiana narrative, address how we are going to set up a place to host executives and events to launch an innovation and make sure we use private and public sectors of leadership around the state to accomplish these things.
LED is also looking to address specific incentive reform, noted Ileana Ledet, the chief economic competitiveness officer for LED. This reform includes looking at the complicated tax structure, site development, and quality job creation. The LED aims to look beyond the number of jobs and hone in on the quality of the job being offered.
A strategic plan was presented to the Senate on Tuesday to give an update on findings, competitive trends, and strategy. There was a motion to defer the vote of approving the plan after previously having on the agenda to approve or deny it.