Source New Mexico reports the campaign seeks paid posts to build trust and encourage positive comments about the Doña Ana County AI project.

Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

The marketing agency behind New Mexico’s award-winning Medicaid re-enrollment social media campaign is recruiting influencers to promote Project Jupiter, the controversial artificial intelligence data center under construction in Doña Ana County.

New Mexico social media personalities posted last weekend that they had received emails from a California-based firm called Xomad, which advertises “services that help brands, governments and media agency partners engineer virality.” In a recent email to New Mexico content creators, it offered a “PAID social media opportunity for creators in NM who want to see their community thrive.”

It said creators would promote a development that would create 4,000 construction jobs and “up to” 1,500 long-term jobs, in addition to $600 million in tax revenue and hundreds of millions of dollars to support water systems, infrastructure and schools.

While the email did not call out Project Jupiter by name, one creator who received the offer told Source NM she recognized those as the talking points from an anonymous mailer campaign that asked New Mexicans to support the data center’s air quality permit applications. The New Mexico State Ethics Commission later sued the group behind those mailers for allegedly violating the state Lobbyist Regulation Act.

“Because I’ve gotten those mailers, I recognized the talking points,” Adrian Martin, an Albuquerque resident who recently made a sarcastic Instagram post opposing the project, told Source NM. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK, I know who you are.’”

She is one of several influencers Source NM interviewed who turned down the gig.

NM State Ethics Commission sues secretive group behind pro-Project Jupiter ad campaign

The New Mexico State Ethics Commission is suing a group behind Project Jupiter ads, alleging it violated state transparency and disclosure laws.

Organ Mountain NewsJoshua Bowling

Indeed, a Powerpoint presentation prepared for influencers reviewed by Source NM confirms the campaign is for Project Jupiter.

“When our communities grow, we all grow, and right now, New Mexico has the opportunity for a generation investment for all of us. Project Jupiter is committed to the community,” the presentation says. “It will bring thousands of local jobs and $360 million in investments for schools, infrastructure, and workforce development, all while protecting public resources like energy and water.”

The presentation directs creators to submit social media content for review as part of the paid partnership, which it says is scheduled to run from June 17 through the end of the month. The public comment on Project Jupiter’s pending air quality permit application was recently extended from July 1 to July 6.

The partnership has three goals, according to the slide deck: Discuss the “positive benefits of Project Jupiter,” “build trust” by saying the project’s fuel and water systems won’t impact the surrounding community and “help increase positive comments” on Project Jupiter’s website.

While AI “tech changes may cause concern for New Mexico residents, Project Jupiter is a generational investment in New Mexico, its economy, its infrastructure and local communities that we’re deeply proud of,” the slideshow says. “For this social media project, we are partnering with you and other local trusted messengers to share transparent and accurate information about the new data center in New Mexico called Project Jupiter. Through your content, we want you to help us break down what is happening, and the positives surrounding it.”

The push for positive messaging about the project comes as a long-awaited town hall meeting on the development quietly transitioned from a county-run meeting to an “open house and career fair” sponsored by its developers and tenants, including OpenAI and Oracle.

Rebekah Apodaca, an Albuquerque resident who said she has mostly stopped doing social media influencing, said she was surprised to receive the pitch at all, but was initially inclined to hear out a paid opportunity.

“There’s always a form you fill out with your handle, your following. Everything seemed standard, until I got to one question where it mentioned a data center, and I’m like, ‘What in the world?’” she told Source NM. “I don’t like deception…they’re trying to sway public opinion by deceiving influencers into promoting jobs and economic growth.”

Neither Xomad nor any of the companies affiliated with Project Jupiter responded to Source NM’s requests for comment Monday. In an email, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Health Care Authority told Source NM that the agency hired Xomad during its “Renew NM” Medicaid campaign but had no knowledge of the company’s efforts regarding Project Jupiter.

Becky Wood, whose Instagram account ABQ Adventures has nearly 40,000 followers, posted over the weekend that she had turned down “a big chunk of $$$ to promote Project Jupiter, the giant AI data center being built down south that will skyrocket NM’s emissions and suck up precious groundwater from an already drought-stricken desert.”

“If you see your favorite NM create posting about Project Jupiter in the coming weeks, know they sold out,” she wrote. “I know it’s hard to turn down work in this economy — but we can’t drink data!”

In an interview Monday, Wood told Source NM that she’s opposed to large AI projects because she’s seen AI search results “cannibalize” the work she’s done on her travel blog without giving her any traffic or pay.

“I’m opposed to AI at scale in general. I think it’s being force-fed to us as something that most people aren’t asking for,” she said, adding that she also has major environmental concerns. “I look out my door and I see the Rio Grande completely dry in Albuquerque in June. It’s just going to get worse and worse and worse.”

Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.