Applied Digital Secures $5B AI Infrastructure Lease, Stock Jumps 7%

Applied Digital has inked a landmark $5 billion deal with a U.S. investment-grade Hyperscaler to lease its North Dakota Polaris Forge 2 Campus for AI infrastructure over 15 years. The agreement covers 200 MW of purpose-built critical IT load and high-performance computing capacity, with potential expansion rights for an additional 800 MW—bringing the site's total potential capacity to 1 GW.

The company now manages 600 MW across two North Dakota campuses leased to Hyperscalers, cementing its position as a rapid-scale builder of next-generation data centers. The Polaris Forge 2 facility spans 900 acres with a projected power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.18 and near-zero water consumption—a critical advantage in energy-intensive AI operations.

"Execution is the true bottleneck in this industry," said CEO Wes Cummins, emphasizing Applied Digital's differentiation through speed of delivery rather than pipeline size alone. The deal's scale reflects accelerating demand for specialized infrastructure to support AI workloads, though no specific cryptocurrency or exchange partnerships were disclosed.