{"id":"67278635-e1c4-464f-8e6c-8efedbee2c2c","name":"Applied Digital","slug":"applied-digital","description":"Applied Digital is a Nasdaq-listed data center developer (ticker APLD) that started as a Bitcoin-hosting operator and pivoted, from 2023 on, into building large HPC and AI campuses on the Northern Plains. Its flagship site, Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota (originally the \"Ellendale HPC\" project), is the anchor of a 15-year lease with CoreWeave; the first 100 MW building was fully energized in November 2025 and a second building came online July 2026. The company is one of the very few pure-play AI-factory landlords at gigawatt scale outside the traditional colocation majors.\\n\\nIn late 2025 Applied Digital reorganized around the landlord model. It signed a roughly $5 billion, multi-hundred-megawatt AI-factory lease with an unnamed US investment-grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2, crossed 1 GW of contracted capacity at Polaris Forge 3 by May 2026, and in June 2026 opened a fifth campus with a 210 MW lease at Delta Forge 2. At the same time it separated its GPU cloud business into a standalone company, ChronoScale, via a combination with EKSO announced in December 2025, so that the parent no longer sells GPU hours and does not disclose an operator-owned GPU fleet or hourly pricing.\\n\\nWhat makes Applied Digital distinctive versus the rest of the neocloud pack is that it competes on the physical layer rather than the compute layer. It sits closer to QTS, Vantage or DataBank than to CoreWeave or Nebius: hyperscaler-grade liquid-cooled shells, financed with senior secured notes (a $2.35 billion issue in November 2025 and a $1.59 billion issue in June 2026) and Macquarie development loans, and leased to a single anchor tenant per building on long dated terms.","status":"private","founded":2021,"hq":"Dallas, Texas, USA","hqLat":32.7762719,"hqLng":-96.7968559,"hqGeocodedAt":"2026-08-23T21:30:29.342Z","hqAddress":null,"hqPrecision":null,"website":"https://www.applieddigital.com","fundingTotal":null,"type":"brain","roles":["data_center_operator"],"reviewStatus":"reviewed","heatIndex":50,"lifecycleState":"active","supersededByCompanyId":null,"sources":[{"url":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases","title":"Applied Digital Investor Relations - Press Releases (2026)"},{"url":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases?year=2025","title":"Applied Digital IR - 2025 Press Releases (CoreWeave RFS, $5B hyperscaler lease, Macquarie draws, ChronoScale spinout)"},{"url":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases?year=2024","title":"Applied Digital IR - 2024 Press Releases (Ellendale HPC milestones, Macquarie $150M note, $450M convertibles)"},{"url":"https://www.applieddigital.com/leadership/","title":"Applied Digital - Leadership Team"},{"url":"https://www.applieddigital.com/about/","title":"Applied Digital - About / AI Factories"},{"url":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/161/applied-digital-brings-an-additional-75-mw-of-ai","title":"Applied Digital Brings an Additional 75 MW of AI Infrastructure Online at Polaris Forge 1","sourceName":"Applied Digital IR","publishedAt":"2026-10-02"}],"keyFacts":[{"label":"Axis classification","value":"OFF-AXIS — data center developer for AI computing, not a physical AI system maker, operator, or regulator"},{"label":"Exchange & ticker","value":"Nasdaq: APLD","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Positioning","value":"AI-factory landlord (data center developer/operator); no longer runs its own GPU cloud after spinning out ChronoScale in Dec 2025","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Anchor tenant","value":"CoreWeave holds a 15-year lease across Polaris Forge 1 (Ellendale, ND); Phase 1 reached ready-for-service Oct 27, 2025 and the first 100 MW building was fully energized Nov 24, 2025","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases?year=2025"},{"label":"Second hyperscaler lease","value":"~$5 billion AI-factory lease with an unnamed US investment-grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2 in North Dakota, announced Oct 22, 2025","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases?year=2025"},{"label":"Contracted capacity milestone","value":"Surpassed 1 GW of contracted capacity at Polaris Forge 3, announced May 20, 2026","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Fifth campus","value":"210 MW lease at Delta Forge 2 signed Jun 8, 2026, extending the AI-factory franchise model to a fifth campus","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Cloud business spin-out","value":"Cloud/GPU business separated as ChronoScale via a business combination with EKSO, announced Dec 29, 2025 and completed May 5, 2026","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Recent debt financing","value":"$2.35B senior secured notes (Nov 2025), $1.59B senior secured notes for Polaris Forge 1 Building 4 (Jun 9, 2026), $550M revolving credit facility (Jun 8, 2026)","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Macquarie relationship","value":"Development loan facility with Macquarie Asset Management supporting the AI-factory campuses; two $787.5M draws in 2025 and an expanded facility in Dec 2025","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases?year=2025"},{"label":"GPU fleet & hourly pricing","value":"Not disclosed by the parent post-spinout; Applied Digital does not sell GPU-hours after separating the cloud business into ChronoScale","sourceUrl":"https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases"},{"label":"Polaris Forge 1 +75 MW RFS; campus 250 MW operational / 400 MW contracted (company-stated, Oct 2026)","value":"Company-stated ([company-stated](https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/161/applied-digital-brings-an-additional-75-mw-of-ai)): on Oct 2 2026 Applied Digital announced Ready for Service for the second phase of Building 2 at Polaris Forge 1 (Ellendale, North Dakota), delivering an additional 75 MW of critical IT load across three 25 MW data halls. Completes Building 2's full 150 MW critical IT load and brings fully operational critical IT load at Polaris Forge 1 to 250 MW. Campus is fully leased and contracted to deliver 400 MW of critical IT load at full buildout. Cap: company IR primary; operational figure is critical IT load, not utility interconnection."}],"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"atsProvider":null,"atsSlug":null,"factoryLocations":null,"manufacturingCapacity":null,"orgType":null,"burnSignal":null,"litigationEvents":null,"insurancePostureDisclosed":null,"unitEconomicsDisclosed":null,"tickerSymbol":null,"stockExchange":null,"secCik":null,"revenueUsd":null,"revenueBasis":null,"revenueAsOf":null,"employeeCount":null,"employeeCountBasis":null,"employeeCountAsOf":null,"marketCapUsd":null,"marketCapAsOf":null,"marketCapSource":null,"createdAt":"2026-08-18T04:01:36.575Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-02T17:47:23.758Z","jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/companies/applied-digital","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/companies/applied-digital","name":"Applied Digital","description":"Applied Digital is a Nasdaq-listed data center developer (ticker APLD) that started as a Bitcoin-hosting operator and pivoted, from 2023 on, into building large HPC and AI campuses on the Northern Plains. Its flagship site, Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota (originally the \"Ellendale HPC\" project), is the anchor of a 15-year lease with CoreWeave; the first 100 MW building was fully energized in November 2025 and a second building came online July 2026. The company is one of the very few pure-play AI-factory landlords at gigawatt scale outside the traditional colocation majors.\\n\\nIn late 2025 Applied Digital reorganized around the landlord model. It signed a roughly $5 billion, multi-hundred-megawatt AI-factory lease with an unnamed US investment-grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2, crossed 1 GW of contracted capacity at Polaris Forge 3 by May 2026, and in June 2026 opened a fifth campus with a 210 MW lease at Delta Forge 2. At the same time it separated its GPU cloud business into a standalone company, ChronoScale, via a combination with EKSO announced in December 2025, so that the parent no longer sells GPU hours and does not disclose an operator-owned GPU fleet or hourly pricing.\\n\\nWhat makes Applied Digital distinctive versus the rest of the neocloud pack is that it competes on the physical layer rather than the compute layer. It sits closer to QTS, Vantage or DataBank than to CoreWeave or Nebius: hyperscaler-grade liquid-cooled shells, financed with senior secured notes (a $2.35 billion issue in November 2025 and a $1.59 billion issue in June 2026) and Macquarie development loans, and leased to a single anchor tenant per building on long dated terms.","identifier":"67278635-e1c4-464f-8e6c-8efedbee2c2c","foundingDate":"2021","address":"Dallas, Texas, USA","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}},"framework_metadata":{"framework_schema_version":"0.1.0","verification_status":"verified","maturity_stage":null,"lifecycle_state":null,"architectural_position":{"cohort":null,"sub_cohorts":[]},"within_cohort_verified_vs_claimed_pair":null,"cap_flags":[],"verification_depth":{"sources_count":6,"primary_source_types":["primary-company-ir"]}}}