New York, Feb 9, 2026, 19:19 EST — After-hours
- Applied Digital climbed 9.4% during Monday’s session, but barely budged once after-hours trading began.
- President Jason Zhang and CFO Saidal Mohmand are set to receive multi-year equity awards, according to a new SEC filing. The awards hinge on leasing and profit benchmarks.
- Mike Grondahl at Northland bumped his price target up to $56, pointing to possible new leasing activity from hyperscalers.
Shares of Applied Digital Corp (APLD.O) shot up 9.4% on Monday, following news that the data-center developer had handed out long-term, performance-linked stock awards to top executives. Traders showed no sign of letting up on U.S.-listed AI infrastructure plays. After hours, the stock barely budged. 1
Applied Digital’s valuation is shifting, now reflecting more of an AI infrastructure story than just a niche hosting angle. Investors want to see the company lock in more long-term deals with major cloud players. They’re also scrutinizing whether Applied Digital can ramp up fresh megawatts, but do it without letting costs spiral.
The board signed off on grants for President and co-founder Jason Zhang and CFO Saidal Mohmand back on Feb. 6, according to a filing. Both executives received performance stock units, which will turn into common shares only if certain targets are met. The company described the awards as being “in lieu” of any future equity grants for the next five years.
Zhang was granted 1.5 million performance stock units along with 500,000 restricted stock units, according to the filing. Those performance units vest in stages based on signing long-term deals with “investment-grade hyperscalers,” followed by hitting “ready for service” targets — essentially, when fresh data-center capacity is built out and handed off to clients.
Zhang hits the first signing threshold at 600 megawatts, with the bar climbing to 1.6 gigawatts after that. The filing shows the ready-for-service milestones line up with those same numbers. (A megawatt is the standard measure for data-center power—higher megawatt counts typically translate to more servers, more rent.)
Mohmand holds 750,000 performance units linked to net operating income, or NOI—a profit metric common in real estate that leaves out financing costs. According to the filing, his units vest if the company’s high-performance computing hosting arm delivers $1 billion and $2 billion in trailing 12-month NOI by Feb. 28, 2031.
The board maintained that dilution should remain modest, pointing out both the restricted and performance units account for under 1% of shares outstanding at the time of the grant. According to separate Form 4 disclosures, Zhang and Mohmand were among those awarded restricted stock units. 2
The filing laid out the narrative investors have been chasing: Applied Digital claims it’s shifted focus to high-performance data centers and colocation tailored for artificial intelligence and cloud clients, leasing out space to hyperscalers. The company said all 400 megawatts at its Ellendale, North Dakota campus are fully leased. There’s also a 200-megawatt lease agreement for a second North Dakota location. Revenue, Applied Digital says, should climb in 2026 when additional facilities are up and running.
Northland analyst Mike Grondahl bumped his price target to $56, pointing to “600 of the 900 MW currently on the table” tied to a fresh investment-grade hyperscaler. He labeled Applied Digital his “Top Pick for 2026,” per a TipRanks report out Monday. 3
The targets aren’t exactly modest, and getting there will demand plenty of cash. Should big leases fall through, construction or grid hookups get delayed, or if borrowing costs ramp up beyond projections, the company risks falling short of the operational and capacity milestones now laid out in black and white.
Eyes are on the next hyperscaler lease signing, along with fresh info about when the latest buildings will go live. TipRanks notes the upcoming earnings report is set for May 8, before the bell. 4
