NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 05:14 ET — Premarket
- EKSO down 8.3% in premarket after a 93.8% jump in the prior session
- Move follows Applied Digital’s plan to merge its cloud unit with EKSO to form ChronoScale
- Investors are watching for binding deal terms, financing details and SEC filings ahead of a vote
Shares of Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (EKSO) were down 8.3% at $9.70 in premarket trading on Wednesday, after ending Tuesday up 93.8% at $10.58. The stock swung between $7.80 and $12.70 in the prior session on about 111 million shares and has ranged from $2.73 to $14.98 over the past 52 weeks, according to Investing.com data.
The move followed Applied Digital’s proposal to combine its cloud computing unit with Ekso in a deal that would create ChronoScale, a standalone platform aimed at AI workloads, with closing targeted in the first half of 2026, the companies said. “We approached our review thoughtfully and with an aim to maximize shareholder value,” Ekso Chief Executive Scott Davis said. Applied Digital said its cloud unit generated about $75.2 million of revenue in the 12 months ended Aug. 31, 2025 and deployed Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing units, or GPUs — chips used to train and run AI models — at scale in 2023. SEC
A filing from Ekso said the parties signed an exclusive, non-binding term sheet — a preliminary agreement that can still be abandoned — and that Applied Digital would own about 97% of the combined company. Ekso’s current shareholders are expected to end up with about 3% of the outstanding shares before any deal-related equity financing, which would further dilute that stake, the filing said. Ekso also said it will keep exploring strategic transactions, including a possible sale of all or substantially all of its current business.
Ekso is a developer of wearable exoskeletons used in medical rehabilitation and industrial settings, according to its investor materials.
Shares of Applied Digital (APLD) were down about 2.9% in premarket trading.
The filings outline a long lead time before any shareholder vote. Applied Digital said ChronoScale expects to file a Form S-4 registration statement — required when issuing shares in a merger — which can include a proxy statement/prospectus for Ekso investors.
For Ekso investors, the immediate question is what value remains in the legacy exoskeleton business once the AI cloud unit is merged in, and how any sale proceeds would be distributed.
Traders will also be watching for details on any equity financing tied to the closing, since Ekso’s stake is expected to be diluted by capital raised in connection with the transaction.
The term sheet is not a definitive agreement, leaving room for terms to change before a final deal is signed. Until then, swings in extended-hours trading can be sharp because fewer shares change hands and the bid-ask spread — the gap between the highest buyer and lowest seller — can widen.
For now, the rally has pushed EKSO into the mix of the market’s most volatile small-cap names, with price action likely to hinge on when the companies move from a term sheet to binding documents and a timetable for a shareholder meeting.
