New York, Jan 8, 2026, 13:49 EST — Regular session
- Applied Digital shares climbed after the company topped quarterly revenue estimates.
- The firm pointed to progress at its North Dakota “AI factory” campuses and more customer talks.
- Traders are weighing new lease momentum against heavy buildout costs and financing needs.
Applied Digital (APLD) shares rose 8.2% to $31.99 in afternoon trading on Thursday after the data-center operator posted a sharp rise in quarterly revenue. The stock hit a session high of $35.44 and about 70 million shares had traded.
The report lands in a market obsessed with power: AI models need vast compute, and compute needs electricity and cooling. Investors have been quick to punish any hint of delays, and quick to pay up for signed capacity.
Applied Digital builds high-performance computing sites and rents power and space to customers — a model called colocation. Its biggest prizes are “hyperscalers,” the large cloud firms that buy data-center capacity by the hundreds of megawatts.
Late Wednesday, Applied Digital reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $126.6 million for the period ended Nov. 30, beating analysts’ average estimate of $88 million, LSEG data showed. Shares jumped about 7% in extended trading after the report.
In a filing, Applied said its Polaris Forge 1 campus in Ellendale, North Dakota reached “ready-for-service” status, delivering 100 megawatts of power and completing the first of three contracted buildings for cloud firm CoreWeave. It also flagged a roughly 15-year lease for 200 MW at its under-construction Polaris Forge 2 site, putting total leased capacity in the state at 600 MW and “prospective” lease revenue at about $16 billion. “The Dakotas represent a compelling region for hyperscalers due to their cool climate and abundant energy,” Chief Executive Wes Cummins said.
The earnings release put adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — at $20.2 million, and adjusted net income at $0.1 million. It also detailed the funding stack behind the buildout, including a $2.35 billion private offering of 9.25% senior secured notes due 2030 and a preferred equity financing facility with Macquarie Asset Management; Applied said it ended the quarter with $2.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash and $2.6 billion in debt.
Barron’s reported Applied is in “advanced talks” with another investment-grade hyperscaler for a 900-megawatt lease across three sites, a potential deal the company suggested could be finalized in early 2026. Needham analyst John Todaro maintained a buy rating and a $41 price target, the report said.
The company has also been reshaping its portfolio. In late December, it said it had entered a non-binding term sheet to combine its cloud computing unit with Ekso Bionics to form ChronoScale, and that the transaction was expected to close in the first half of 2026.
But Applied still burns cash on a GAAP basis and its expansion depends on big-ticket leases staying on track. Any delay in power connections, construction, or customer sign-offs could force another trip to the capital markets.
Investors will watch for updates on the additional hyperscaler talks and the pace of deliveries at Polaris Forge 1 and 2, with first capacity at the new campus slated to start coming online in 2026. For the broader market backdrop, traders are also bracing for the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, Jan. 9.
