New York, January 20, 2026, 21:00 EST — The market has closed for the day.
- Applied Digital fell 5.2% Tuesday amid a sharp, broad market selloff.
- Bitcoin edged lower as investors pared back risk, dragging crypto-linked and leveraged infrastructure stocks down with it
- Attention turns to tariff updates, interest rates, and any news on Applied Digital’s major tenant leasing discussions
Applied Digital Corp (APLD.O) shares slipped 5.2% to finish at $35.46 on Tuesday, after tumbling as much as 10% earlier in the session. The Nasdaq-listed stock ranged from $33.63 to $37.24 during the day.
The decline hits hard since APLD has morphed into a leveraged bet on AI-focused data centers and other intensive computing setups, alongside a smaller crypto mining hosting operation. In its latest quarterly report, the company revealed $2.3 billion in cash against $2.6 billion in debt — figures that tend to unsettle investors when risk appetite wanes. 1
“The geopolitical risks we’ve flagged for a while are coming back,” said Wasif Latif, chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners, as markets tumbled. He described it as “a pretty significant risk-off day.” 2
The risk-off shift hit hard. U.S. stocks dropped sharply after President Donald Trump warned of new tariffs amid escalating tensions over Greenland. The S&P 500 fell 2.1%, while the Nasdaq slid 2.4% for the day, according to an Associated Press report. 3
Crypto slid as well. The CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index dropped 3.78%, landing at $89,566.93. This decline usually weighs on stocks of companies involved in mining or those supplying data centers linked to crypto demand. 4
Other crypto-related stocks took a hit too. Marathon Digital dropped 8.8%, Riot Platforms shed 5.9%, IREN declined 6.2%, and Core Scientific was down 2.8% during the session.
Applied Digital is pushing hard on AI infrastructure. The January 7 earnings statement showed $126.6 million in quarterly revenue and revealed it delivered 100 megawatts (MW) of capacity at Polaris Forge 1 for CoreWeave — MW being the power metric for data centers. The company has 400 MW under contract overall. It also highlighted a roughly 15-year, 200 MW lease with an investment-grade “hyperscaler” at Polaris Forge 2 — industry code for a massive cloud operator. 5
Funding continues to be a sticking point. The company wrapped up a $2.35 billion private placement of 9.25% senior secured notes due in 2030—these are bonds secured by collateral—and tapped into a preferred equity financing facility with Macquarie Asset Management. 6
The downside scenario is straightforward: APLD relies on consistent financing and timely construction to convert signed power capacity into actual revenue. Delays in leasing or tighter debt markets could make the stock more volatile than the wider data center sector.
With the market closed, attention turns to Wednesday as traders monitor if bitcoin can hold steady and if interest rates will continue climbing after Tuesday’s sharp move. Applied Digital has no events listed on its calendar, pointing to the next trigger coming from a company announcement—whether a lease, financing deal, or a filing—rather than a scheduled call. 7
Trump announced that 10% import tariffs will kick in on February 1 for goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Great Britain, jumping to 25% on June 1, Reuters reports. Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said he hasn’t seen investors pulling back yet and remarked, “I’m not at the point yet… [this] is going to precipitate a correction.” 8
