Applied Digital Corp. (APLD)

Applied Digital is a U.S.-based designer, developer, owner, and operator of large-scale, purpose-built data centers engineered for high-performance computing workloads, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other accelerated-compute applications. It builds and operates what it calls AI factories, which are high-density, sustainably engineered facilities delivered to investment-grade hyperscalers and other compute customers under long-term lease and hosting arrangements. The company has evolved from a blockchain hosting business into an HPC data center platform built on a standardized, repeatable design model that covers site selection, design, construction, and operations, in both air-cooled and liquid-cooled configurations. It targets roughly 150 MW facilities in about 14 to 18 months, with low water usage.

The company has two reportable segments. HPC Hosting designs, builds, owns, and operates data centers for high-density GPU infrastructure. Its campuses are Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota, Polaris Forge 2 near Harwood, North Dakota, Polaris Forge 3 in the northern U.S., and Delta Forge 1 and Delta Forge 2 in the southern U.S. As of May 31, 2026, it had executed leases for about 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses, representing about $36.2 billion of revenue over initial 15-year base terms. The leases are take-or-pay and non-cancellable, with renewal options, and about 100 MW was operating at that date. The company is also pursuing a pipeline of more than 3 GW of utility power plus an extended pipeline of more than 5 GW. With Base Electron Corporation, it is pursuing about 1.2 GW of natural gas-fired generation in the Dakotas. The legacy Data Center Hosting segment provides energized infrastructure to a single crypto mining customer at facilities in Jamestown (106 MW) and Ellendale (180 MW), North Dakota, and is expected to shrink in relative importance. In May 2026 the company separated its cloud business into ChronoScale, which is about 97% owned, consolidated, and listed on Nasdaq. ChronoScale provides cloud services from third-party co-location centers in Colorado, Minnesota, and Utah. It also holds the legacy Ekso Bionics exoskeleton business, which is held for sale. Cloud is no longer a reportable segment.

Customers are CoreWeave, which leases 400 MW at Polaris Forge 1, and investment-grade hyperscalers leasing the other campuses. The company has three HPC customers, each on roughly 15-year leases, and one crypto mining customer in legacy hosting, so customer concentration is material in both segments. The markets served are AI and HPC data center capacity, driven by hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending, rising rack power densities, and demand for liquid-cooled capacity.

The company relies on suppliers for electrical infrastructure, power and cooling equipment, and construction materials. Named partners include ABB for electrical equipment, BASX for mechanical and cooling systems, and Caterpillar for backup generation. It uses prefabricated skids, modular construction, and early procurement of long-lead items, though it depends on a limited number of vendors, some of them single-source. Competitors include Digital Realty and Equinix, hyperscalers building their own capacity, independent data center developers, and former blockchain hosts such as IREN, Cipher Digital, TeraWulf, Hut 8, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, and MARA. As of May 31, 2026, it had about 256 full-time employees. Its executive office is in Dallas, Texas.