Applied Digital
Table of Contents

⚠ Disclaimer: This entry may be incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate. It is AI-maintained on a best-effort basis. Do not rely on it as a sole source — verify claims independently using the sources listed below.

Summary

Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) is a Dallas, Texas developer and operator of purpose-built AI datacenter campuses it calls “AI Factories,” leased on roughly 15-year take-or-pay terms to CoreWeave and to an unnamed high investment-grade hyperscaler. Its fiscal year ended 2026-05-31 reported revenue of $611.3M and a GAAP net loss of $249.2M attributable to common stockholders. The company reports about 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses and about $36B of base-term contracted revenue (about $86B if all renewal options are exercised). Only part of that capacity is operating: Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota had 175 MW live as of 2026-06-30, and the later campuses are under construction with operations expected in 2027–2028.

Key Facts

  • Founded: 2021 (co-founders Wes Cummins and Jason Zhang)
  • HQ: Dallas, TX
  • Type: Public (NASDAQ: APLD); cloud unit spun into ChronoScale Holdings (NASDAQ: CHRN) on 2026-05-05; Applied Digital owns about 96%
  • Leadership: Wes Cummins (Chairman and CEO); Jason Zhang (President since 2026-01-14)
  • FY2026 (to 2026-05-31): revenue $611.3M (+167%); GAAP net loss attributable to common $249.2M; adjusted EBITDA $107.2M (excludes ChronoScale)
  • Contracted capacity: about 1,410 MW critical IT load across five campuses; about $36B base-term lease revenue
  • Live capacity: Polaris Forge 1 reached 175 MW on 2026-06-30 (first 100 MW operational October 2025)
  • Campuses: Polaris Forge 1 (Ellendale, ND; 400 MW, CoreWeave); Polaris Forge 2 (Harwood, ND; 200 MW leased to an unnamed hyperscaler); Polaris Forge 3 (ND; 300 MW leased); Delta Forge 1 (Boyce/Alexandria area, LA; 300 MW leased); Delta Forge 2 (unnamed southern state; 210 MW leased)
  • Separate hosting business: about 286 MW of bitcoin-mining hosting in Jamestown (106 MW) and Ellendale (180 MW), ND
  • Cooling: closed-loop direct-to-chip liquid cooling; company design PUE 1.18 (design target, not measured); near-zero water use claimed
  • Balance sheet (2026-05-31): about $4.2B cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash; about $5.0B debt
  • Financing: $5B perpetual preferred equity facility with Macquarie Asset Management; $2.15B 6.750% senior secured notes due 2031 (Polaris Forge 2); $1.59B 7.000% senior secured notes due 2031 (Polaris Forge 1 Building 4)

What It Is / How It Works

Applied Digital builds powered shells with fit-out for a single anchor tenant and leases them on long terms. The tenant brings its own GPUs; Applied Digital supplies land, power connection, structure, cooling and connectivity. Applied Digital carries construction and financing risk; the tenant carries hardware and utilization risk. Contracted revenue is therefore lease revenue, not compute revenue.

Site strategy. Early campuses are in North Dakota, chosen for available power, a cool climate and land. Later campuses moved to Louisiana and another southern state to reach additional hyperscaler demand. Delta Forge 1 broke ground in January 2026 with initial operations expected in 2027.

Cooling. The company describes a closed-loop direct-to-chip liquid system with dry heat rejection, rather than evaporative cooling towers. Its releases cite a design PUE of 1.18 and near-zero water consumption for Polaris Forge 1 and 2. The fluid and architecture are not disclosed in detail.

Tenant concentration. CoreWeave is the tenant on the existing Polaris Forge 1 leases; the three newest leases are with the same unnamed hyperscaler, which Applied Digital describes as high investment-grade. Neither the identity nor the credit terms of that tenant are public.

Notable Developments

  • 2026-07-27: Fiscal Q4 and full-year FY2026 results: Q4 revenue $258.7M, FY revenue $611.3M; about 1,410 MW contracted; Polaris Forge 1 at 175 MW live after 75 MW delivered on 2026-06-30. (Datacentre Magazine / GlobeNewswire)
  • 2026-07: Lease at Polaris Forge 3 (ND) for 300 MW, about $7.5B base term, with the unnamed hyperscaler; operations expected 2027. (Datacentre Magazine / GlobeNewswire)
  • 2026-06-08: 210 MW lease at Delta Forge 2 in an unnamed southern state; about $5.2B base term (about $12.7B with renewals); proprietary waterless cooling; operations expected first half of 2028. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2026-05-05: Cloud services business spun into ChronoScale Holdings (NASDAQ: CHRN); Applied Digital retains about 96%. (Datacentre Magazine / GlobeNewswire)
  • 2026-04: 300 MW of leases at Delta Forge 1 (Louisiana) for about $7.5B with the unnamed hyperscaler; campus planned at 430 MW; groundbreaking January 2026. (DCD)
  • 2026-01-14: Jason Zhang moves from Chief Strategy Officer to President. (SEC 8-K)
  • 2025-12: $100M initial draws on a development loan facility from Macquarie Group’s commodities and global markets business to fund pre-lease development. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2025-12: CEO Wes Cummins discusses development pace and North Dakota strategy. (RCR Wireless)
  • 2025-11: Second $787.5M draw on the Macquarie Asset Management preferred equity facility. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2025-10-22: 200 MW lease at Polaris Forge 2 with an unnamed US investment-grade hyperscaler; about $5B over about 15 years; design PUE 1.18. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2025-10: First 100 MW building at Polaris Forge 1 operational; CoreWeave’s 400 MW fully contracted at about $11B anticipated lease revenue. (FY26 Q1 results)
  • 2025-09: Groundbreaking at Polaris Forge 2 (Harwood, ND); about $3B campus cost. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2025-08-01: Jason Zhang becomes Chief Strategy Officer. (SEC 8-K)
  • 2025-06-02: Two roughly 15-year leases with CoreWeave for 250 MW at Ellendale, ND (about $7B), with an option for 150 MW more. (Applied Digital IR)
  • 2021: Company founded by Wes Cummins and Jason Zhang.

Key People

Wes Cummins — Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO

  • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wes-cummins-63114481
  • Role: Chairman and CEO; officer since 2020-12-31 per MarketScreener
  • Background: Capital-markets and technology-investing background; framed in company materials as the driver of site selection, financing and execution rather than engineering.

Jason Zhang — Co-Founder and President

  • LinkedIn: not found
  • Role: President since 2026-01-14 (previously Chief Strategy Officer from 2025-08-01); annual base salary $700,000 per the 8-K
  • Source: SEC 8-K

Saidal Mohmand — CFO

  • LinkedIn: not found
  • Role: Chief Financial Officer per MarketScreener (start listed 2024-10-13)

Laura Laltrello — Chief Operating Officer

  • LinkedIn: not found
  • Role: COO per MarketScreener (start listed 2025-01-05)

Prior employers for these executives were not confirmed from fetched sources.

People — Last Reviewed: 2026-10-23

Supply Chain Position

Applied Digital sits at the datacenter developer/operator layer: downstream of land, utility power, construction and cooling equipment; upstream of tenants who supply GPUs.

Layer Applied Digital’s dependency
Land and site North Dakota, Louisiana and one unnamed southern state
Utility interconnect Utility power is the main constraint; the company cites about 2.15 GW of grid-connected utility power for its five campuses
Construction General contractors not named in sources reviewed
Cooling Proprietary closed-loop direct-to-chip system; component suppliers not disclosed
Tenants CoreWeave (PF1); unnamed hyperscaler (PF2, PF3, DF1, DF2)

⚑ Tenant concentration: Four of five campuses are leased to one unnamed hyperscaler and the first campus to CoreWeave. The FY2026 release says CoreWeave leases are supported by a restructured SPV, springing guarantees from CoreWeave, Inc. and a $50M letter of credit, and that a memorandum of understanding would assign the Polaris Forge 1 Building 4 lease to a CoreWeave subsidiary if it achieves an investment-grade rating.

⚑ Financing: Funding relies on high-yield secured notes (6.750% and 7.000%), a Macquarie preferred equity facility and construction bridge loans. About $5.0B of debt against about $4.2B of cash and restricted cash at 2026-05-31.

Claim Verification

Claim: Waterless direct-to-chip cooling with design PUE of 1.18

Status: Unverified

Supporting sources:

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • No measured annualized PUE or WUE from operating halls was found; the figure is a design target. Early lease releases give no PUE figure.

Summary: Design claim only; measured performance has not been published.

Claim: About 1,410 MW contracted and about $36B base-term revenue

Status: Partially verified

Supporting sources:

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • Contracted does not mean operating: 175 MW was live at 2026-06-30. Three of the five leases are with an unnamed tenant, so credit quality cannot be checked independently, and contracted values depend on renewal options and 15-year performance.

Summary: Contract values are company-reported; operating capacity is a fraction of the total.

Claim: Polaris Forge 1 contract value

Status: Verified

Supporting sources:

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • None found.

Summary: Value rose from about $7B to about $11B as the leased capacity grew from 250 MW to 400 MW.

Claim: Cost per MW

Status: Unverified

Supporting sources:

Refuting / questioning sources:

  • The sources do not state whether the figure includes land, power infrastructure, fit-out and redundancy, so a per-MW cost is not derived here.

Summary: Campus cost is stated; scope is not.

Sources

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