Applied Digital Corporation

Applied Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: APLD) designs, builds, owns, and operates next-generation data centers across North America, with its core footprint in Ellendale and Harwood, North Dakota and a newer expansion into Rapides Parish, Louisiana. The company's strategy is to secure large blocks of low-cost, grid-connected utility power in underserved markets, then erect purpose-built 'AI Factory' campuses (branded Polaris Forge and Delta Forge) engineered for direct-to-chip, liquid-cooled GPU clusters, which it leases to hyperscalers and neoclouds on long-dated, triple-net-style contracts.

The business was founded in 2001 (formerly Applied Blockchain) and pivoted from hosting bitcoin miners to high-performance computing infrastructure. In May 2026 Applied Digital completed the separation of its capital-intensive, lower-margin cloud-services unit, contributing it to EKSO Bionics Holdings, which was renamed ChronoScale Corporation (Nasdaq: CHRN); APLD retained roughly 97% of ChronoScale's equity. The move strips a GPU-leasing segment that muddied the narrative and leaves APLD as a near-pure data center landlord positioning itself for an eventual REIT conversion alongside peers like Digital Realty and Equinix.

The flagship asset is Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, a 400 MW campus fully leased to CoreWeave. Building 1 (100 MW) energized in late November 2025 and is one of the few 100 MW direct-to-chip liquid-cooled facilities operating today. Around it APLD has stacked four more contracted campuses — Polaris Forge 2 (Harwood), Polaris Forge 3 (North Dakota), Delta Forge 1 (Louisiana), and Delta Forge 2 (undisclosed southern U.S.) — bringing signed leases to roughly 1.4 GW of critical-IT load (~2.15 GW of gross utility power).

The power story is the whole story. Applied Digital's edge is not GPUs or software — it is the ability to lock up gigawatt-scale, grid-connected utility power in places where it is cheap and available (North Dakota wind belt, Gulf-Coast gas) and to energize it years ahead of where a hyperscaler could permit and build alone. Every megawatt APLD controls is a megawatt it can convert into a 15-year take-or-pay lease. The contracted book — Polaris Forge 1 (400 MW, CoreWeave), PF2 (200 MW), PF3 (300 MW), Delta Forge 1 (300 MW), Delta Forge 2 (210 MW) — totals ~1.4 GW of critical IT and roughly $36B of base-term revenue, an extraordinary backlog against an ~$11B equity value.

The bull case: this is a Digital-Realty-in-the-making with a backlog already signed, investment-grade-style counterparties, and a clear path to REIT economics and dividends once it turns cash-positive. Lease revenue is long, escalating, and largely insensitive to GPU obsolescence because APLD owns the shell and the power, not the silicon. If it can finance the build-out without crushing dilution, the spread between its cost of secured power and contracted lease rates is enormous, and the 1.7 GW it is actively marketing across new and existing sites is pure option value on top.

The bear case is financing and concentration. APLD must pour billions into construction before most of that $36B backlog converts to cash; it carried ~$2.7B of debt and a GAAP net loss even in a record quarter, and the build is front-loaded with execution, supply-chain, and interest-rate risk. CoreWeave is the anchor and CoreWeave's own credit and AI-demand durability are themselves debated; a single large tenant stumble, a delayed energization, or a capital-markets freeze would hit hard. The 1.7 GW 'marketing' pipeline is intent, not signed, and partly overlaps existing campuses — so the real, committed number is the 1.4 GW, not the headline.

Post-spin, APLD owns the power and purpose-built campuses and leases space to CoreWeave/hyperscalers on 15-yr take-or-pay terms — closer to a powered-shell landlord than an operator. Not 0 because it develops and builds the facilities (not raw land); not higher because it no longer runs the GPUs after exiting the cloud business.