Applied Digital (APLD) Stock on November 30, 2025: AI Data Center Milestones, $2.35B Debt Deal and a 1GW Power Project

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD) has packed an entire earnings season’s worth of headlines into a few weeks. As of the weekend of November 30, 2025, the stock sits around $27 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $7–8 billion after a year of explosive, volatility‑filled gains. ^[1]

At the same time, the company has:

Brought its first 100MW AI “Factory” building fully online in North Dakota. ^[2]
Lined up a $5 billion, ~15‑year lease with a major U.S. investment‑grade hyperscaler at a second campus. ^[3]
Priced $2.35 billion in senior secured notes due 2030 at 9.25%. ^[4]
Secured up to $787.5 million in additional preferred equity from Macquarie Asset Management. ^[5]
Entered an agreement with Babcock & Wilcox on a $1.5 billion project to deliver 1 gigawatt of power to an Applied Digital AI data center. ^[6]

Here’s how those developments fit together – and what they mean for Applied Digital stock today.

APLD Stock Today: Price, Performance and Volatility

As of late November, Applied Digital stock is trading near $27 after a sharp move higher late last week; intraday quotes around November 28–29 show prices in the $27.10–27.12 range, with recent volume near 20 million shares. ^[7]

Key trading metrics:

52‑week range: roughly $3.31 to $40.20 ^[8]
Market cap: about $7–7.5 billion, depending on the exact tick. ^[9]
YTD performance:+~220% in 2025, according to TipRanks’ data snapshot. ^[10]
Valuation: trailing P/E is still negative (around ‑24x), reflecting that the company remains unprofitable on a GAAP basis. ^[11]

Options activity has also been intense. A recent TipRanks note flagged unusually high options volume in APLD, with a heavier skew toward calls but substantial demand for puts as downside protection – a combination that has driven elevated implied volatility and underscores how traders are bracing for big swings, not calm steady gains. ^[12]

In other words: Applied Digital is no longer a tiny speculative crypto‑infrastructure play. It’s a mid‑cap AI‑data‑center builder whose stock behaves like a leveraged bet on the AI infrastructure boom.

The Big November Catalyst: First 100MW AI Factory Goes Live

The most important operational news this month is that Applied Digital’s first large‑scale AI data center building is now fully energized.

On November 24, 2025, the company announced it had completed Phase II Ready‑for‑Service (RFS) at Polaris Forge 1 Building 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota. This second 50MW phase brings the building to its full 100MW critical IT load, marking the completion of the first of three contracted buildings at the campus. ^[13]

Key points from that update:

Polaris Forge 1 is part of a 400MW campus fully contracted to AI cloud player CoreWeave under long‑term leases. ^[14]
The RFS milestone means the facility can now host customers’ high‑performance computing (HPC) gear and begin generating lease revenue instead of construction revenue. ^[15]
Applied Digital calls these facilities “AI Factories” – high‑density, liquid‑cooled data centers purpose‑built for GPU clusters, with projected PUE (power usage effectiveness) around 1.18 and near‑zero water consumption thanks to a closed‑loop cooling design. ^[16]

Market reaction has been enthusiastic. MarketBeat highlighted that shares jumped roughly 12–13% on November 24 as investors rewarded the company for turning a costly project into a revenue‑producing asset. ^[17]

For a stock that has rallied on the promise of future AI infrastructure, this is a crucial proof‑of‑execution moment: at least part of the pipeline is no longer theoretical.

$16 Billion in Contracted Revenue Across Two AI Campuses

The Ellendale campus is only half the story. Applied Digital is simultaneously building Polaris Forge 2, a massive AI factory campus near Harwood, North Dakota, just north of Fargo.

On October 22, 2025, the company announced that it had signed a roughly 15‑year lease with a U.S. investment‑grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2: ^[18]

Contract value: about $5 billion in total revenue over the term.
Capacity:200MW of critical IT load in the initial phase.
Expansion option: the customer holds a first right of refusal on an additional 800MW, representing the full 1GW expansion potential of the campus.

Combined with CoreWeave’s leases at Polaris Forge 1, which now cover 400MW of contracted capacity and roughly $11 billion of expected lease revenue, Applied Digital’s total contracted revenue across both campuses is now around $16 billion, according to company disclosures. ^[19]

That backlog underpins the bull case: if Applied Digital can build out these campuses on time and on budget, it will be sitting on multi‑decade, hyperscaler‑grade lease streams in one of the most in‑demand parts of the data center market.

Financing the Buildout: Macquarie Money and a $2.35B Bond Deal

Rapid buildout at this scale requires equally rapid capital raises, and November’s financing news has been just as dramatic as the operational updates.

Preferred equity from Macquarie Asset Management

On November 12, 2025, Applied Digital announced it expects to draw an additional $787.5 million from its previously disclosed up to $5.0 billion perpetual preferred equity facility with Macquarie Asset Management. ^[20]

About $450 million is earmarked for Polaris Forge 2 in Harwood.
About $337.5 million will go to Polaris Forge 1, pending the closing of Applied Digital’s bond offering.
The structure is non‑dilutive to common shareholders (at least in the traditional share‑issuance sense) but adds preferred obligations above common equity in the capital stack. ^[21]

$2.35B of 9.25% senior secured notes due 2030

One day later, on November 13, 2025, the company’s subsidiary APLD ComputeCo priced a $2.35 billion offering of 9.25% senior secured notes due 2030 at 97% of par. ^[22]

The proceeds are earmarked to: ^[23]

Fund construction of the 100MW and 150MW Ellendale facilities (ELN‑02 and ELN‑03).
Repay an existing credit and guaranty agreement.
Fund debt service reserves and transaction expenses.

These notes are:

Fully and unconditionally guaranteed by various project subsidiaries.
Secured by first‑priority liens on substantially all assets of APLD Compute and the guarantors, including equity interests and designated project accounts. ^[24]

Investors cheered the access to large‑scale project finance but worried about the cost and leverage. Several commentaries, including pieces on Insider Monkey and Finviz‑tracked outlets, noted that the stock sold off sharply around the announcement date as the market digested another layer of high‑coupon debt on top of an already leveraged balance sheet. ^[25]

Additional liquidity

As part of the same funding arc, Applied Digital also disclosed a $65 million revolving credit and letter‑of‑credit facility from First National Bank of Omaha, with interest at SOFR + 2.75%, secured by the company’s assets (excluding subsidiaries). ^[26]

The picture that emerges: the company has stitched together a complex capital stack – preferred equity, project notes, bank revolvers – to transform its development pipeline into revenue‑producing AI campuses without constant common‑equity dilution. The flip side is a meaningful increase in fixed obligations and interest expense.

One Gigawatt of Power: The Babcock & Wilcox Deal

AI infrastructure doesn’t run on inspirational quotes; it runs on electricity. Another major November storyline is Applied Digital’s power strategy.

On November 4, 2025, Babcock & Wilcox (NYSE: BW) announced it had signed a limited notice to proceed (LNTP) with Applied Digital on a project valued at more than $1.5 billion to design and install 1 gigawatt of electric power for an Applied Digital AI factory. ^[27]

Highlights from B&W’s announcements:

The project will use four natural gas‑fired plants with steam boilers and turbines, rather than traditional simple‑cycle gas turbines, with the aim of shorter time‑to‑market. ^[28]
Operations are targeted to begin in 2028, with full contract release expected in early 2026. ^[29]

For Applied Digital, this underscores two critical realities:

Scale: they are planning power infrastructure at the gigawatt level, consistent with their ambition to support multi‑campus, multi‑hyperscaler AI workloads.
Energy mix and ESG: reliance on large natural‑gas‑fired plants may invite increased scrutiny from investors and regulators focused on emissions, even if the company’s data center cooling designs minimize water use.

Q1 FY2026 Results: Revenue Soars, Profit Still Elusive

Financially, the latest detailed snapshot comes from Applied Digital’s fiscal first quarter 2026 results, covering the period ended August 31, 2025 and reported on October 9. ^[30]

Headline numbers from continuing operations:

Revenue:$64.2 million, up 84% year‑over‑year.
Net loss attributable to common shareholders:$27.8 million, versus a profit of $15.9 million in the prior‑year period.
Net loss per share:‑$0.11.
Adjusted net loss:$7.6 million, or ‑$0.03 per share.
Adjusted EBITDA: roughly $0.5 million. ^[31]

Revenue growth was largely driven by:

Tenant fit‑out services and installation work for the HPC Hosting business at Polaris Forge 1 (one‑time, lower‑margin, but significant in dollar terms).
Modest growth in the legacy crypto/data center hosting business. ^[32]

On the balance sheet at quarter‑end:

Cash and equivalents: about $114 million.
Debt: approximately $687 million, before the later $2.35 billion note offering and additional Macquarie financing. ^[33]

CRN, covering the results, emphasized that while revenue is rising rapidly, the company posted a sizeable net loss and continues to spend heavily on expansion – and that it is effectively in a transition from legacy crypto hosting to a full‑blown AI data center landlord. ^[34]

Analyst and Market Sentiment: Bullish – But With Caveats

Sell‑side analysts remain broadly positive on APLD, even after its massive run.

According to MarketBeat and TipRanks:

13 analysts cover the stock.
The average 12‑month price target is about $26.20, slightly below the current price, implying modest downside from around $27. ^[35]
The target range is wide: from a low of $7 (Cantor Fitzgerald) to a high of $47 (B. Riley). ^[36]

Notable recent calls include: ^[37]

Northland Securities: Buy rating, $40 target, reiterated November 13, 2025.
Needham: Buy, $41 target, initiated/updated in late October.
B. Riley Securities: Buy, target raised from $23 to $47 after the Polaris Forge 2 lease.
Compass Point and Lucid Capital: Buy ratings with targets in the $40–45 range.
Cantor Fitzgerald: Buy rating but target cut from $14 to $7, highlighting concerns about valuation and/or risk.

Meanwhile, retail‑facing sites and newsletters have repeatedly referred to Applied Digital as a “monster stock” and one of the biggest AI‑infrastructure winners of 2025, pointing to year‑to‑date gains above 300% at various points and speculating on potential moves toward $50–$56 per share over the next year. ^[38]

That mix – overwhelmingly bullish analyst ratings, a stretched but not absurd consensus target, and highly promotional commentary in some corners of the market – is typical of a story‑driven growth stock late in a big run.

Insider Activity and Governance Notes

One notable governance headline this week:

Ella G. Benson, a director at Applied Digital, sold 8,581 shares on November 24, 2025, at prices between $21.14 and $23.79, for proceeds of about $199,000. ^[39]

The filing shows:

The sale was conducted under a Rule 10b5‑1 trading plan adopted back in January 2025.
Benson still directly owns 68,422 shares (mostly in the form of restricted stock and RSUs vesting over 2026–2027). ^[40]

This kind of planned selling is not unusual after a big stock run, but investors watching insider sentiment will nevertheless note it as a data point, especially in a name with substantial volatility.

Local Impact and Community Concerns in North Dakota

Beyond Wall Street, Applied Digital’s AI campuses are reshaping parts of rural North Dakota.

A September 2025 feature from InForum (a Fargo‑area outlet) outlined how the Harwood (Polaris Forge 2) campus:

Is projected as a $3 billion, 280MW AI facility on about 160 developed acres out of a 925‑acre site.
Could create around 700 construction jobs and more than 200 full‑time roles once operational. ^[41]

The same piece highlighted community questions around:

Water use – Applied Digital says both campuses use a closed‑loop, liquid‑cooling system that keeps water use roughly in line with a single household, with most water consumption coming from people on site rather than cooling itself. ^[42]
Noise – the company says concrete walls and site design will limit sound, with most noise coming from heat‑pump‑type equipment.
Speed of approvals – local officials approved rezoning and permits in under a month; CEO Wes Cummins argued the timeline reflects the global race to build AI infrastructure, not an attempt to bypass scrutiny. ^[43]

These local dynamics matter because they foreshadow potential friction points in future expansions: grid constraints, environmental scrutiny, and community pushback could all affect the pace at which Applied Digital can turn its development pipeline into operating capacity.

Key Risks for APLD Investors

Taken together, the late‑November news flow crystallizes several major risk themes:

Leverage and interest‑rate risk
The $2.35 billion, 9.25% notes, combined with existing debt and Macquarie preferred equity, mean Applied Digital is taking on substantial fixed obligations just as interest rates stay elevated. If lease ramp‑up or occupancy lags, debt service could squeeze cash flow. ^[44]
Customer concentration
A large portion of future revenue is tied to CoreWeave at Polaris Forge 1 and a single unnamed investment‑grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2. While those are marquee clients, dependence on a small number of counterparties magnifies the impact of any contract disputes, delays, or renegotiations. ^[45]
Execution risk
Delivering multiple, phased 100–400MW+ buildings across two campuses – plus coordinating power projects like the 1GW Babcock & Wilcox plant – is an enormous logistical challenge. Any construction delays, cost overruns, or supply‑chain issues could erode the attractive economics implied by today’s contracts. ^[46]
Regulatory, environmental and community pressures
Large natural‑gas‑fired power plants and energy‑intensive data centers are attracting more attention from regulators and local communities. Protests and concerns in Harwood show that not everyone is thrilled about AI factories as neighbors, even with promised jobs and tax revenue. ^[47]
Valuation and sentiment
After a 200%+ YTD rally, with daily moves regularly in the high single digits, APLD is clearly in the crosshairs of momentum traders and options‑driven flows. Analyst targets remain mostly bullish, but the average target now sits slightly below the current price, and at least one firm has a much lower target that bakes in significant downside. ^[48]

None of these risks negate the upside story, but they do explain why the name is so volatile and why November’s financing headlines produced sharp pullbacks even as operational news improved.

The Bottom Line: What the November 30, 2025 News Means for Applied Digital Stock

As the calendar flips from November to December 2025, the state of play for Applied Digital stock (APLD) looks roughly like this:

The bull case is stronger: the first 100MW AI building is online, both North Dakota campuses have landed heavyweight hyperscaler tenants, and the company has secured tens of billions in long‑term contracted revenue, plus large‑scale power partnerships that could support future expansion. ^[49]
The bear case is also clearer: the buildout is funded with expensive, large‑scale debt and preferred equity, the company is still loss‑making, and the stock price already reflects a massive 2025 rerating with significant embedded expectations. ^[50]

For investors, the latest news flow doesn’t provide a simple “buy or sell” answer. It does, however, sharpen the question:

Are you comfortable owning a highly leveraged, hyper‑growth AI data‑center developer at mid‑single‑digit billions in market cap, with enormous contracted upside but equally enormous execution and financing risk?

Anyone considering APLD needs to weigh their own risk tolerance, time horizon, and diversification – and, ideally, pair this headline‑driven narrative with a careful read of the company’s latest 10‑Q and 10‑K filings and independent financial advice rather than relying solely on promotional commentary or dramatic price moves.

Whether the next leg for Applied Digital stock is another surge or a consolidation phase, the late‑November 2025 news confirms one thing: this company is now squarely at the center of the race to build the physical infrastructure of the AI era.

Applied Digital Stock Analysis: The Boldest Bet in AI Infrastructure