Applied Digital signs $7.5 billion AI data center lease, shares jump 12%

Applied Digital turned a single lease into a bigger signal about the AI buildout: a $7.5 billion, 15-year contract for 300 megawatts at Delta Forge 1 lifted its contracted revenue above $23 billion and sent the stock up more than 12%.

The deal was signed with an unnamed U.S.-based high investment-grade hyperscaler, and Applied Digital said it is now its second U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscaler across three AI Factory campuses and its third hyperscale tenant overall. That matters because the competition in artificial intelligence is no longer just about model quality or chip access. It is about securing enough power, cooling and concrete to host the systems that run the technology.

Delta Forge 1 is a 430-megawatt AI Factory campus under construction in the southern United States, and Applied Digital said initial operations are expected in mid-2027. The company broke ground on the site on January 22, 2026, and said the campus spans more than 500 acres. It was designed to initially support 430 MW of total utility power across two buildings, giving Applied Digital room to scale as demand from AI customers grows.

The lease adds to a backlog that has been built in stages rather than all at once. In June 2025, Applied Digital said two 15-year CoreWeave leases at Ellendale, North Dakota, would generate about $7 billion over roughly 15 years. Applied Digital also said more than half of its contracted revenue is now backed by investment-grade customers, a shift that could make the business look less exposed to the volatility that typically shadows smaller data-center developers.

The company is also leaning on financing to keep up with the pace of construction. Applied Digital said it expects up to $600 million in financing, including a $300 million senior secured bridge facility for development at Polaris Forge 1 and up to a $300 million revolving credit facility for broader development and working capital needs. The bridge loan would support the 150-megawatt Building 3 data center at Polaris Forge 1, while the revolving line would cover pre-lease and post-lease development activities, general working capital and transaction expenses.

Those capital demands show how expensive the AI infrastructure race has become. Applied Digital entered into a $5.0 billion perpetual preferred equity financing facility with Macquarie Asset Management in January 2025, and on April 8 it reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 revenue of $126.6 million and adjusted EBITDA of $44.1 million. With Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle all scrambling for power and capacity, Applied Digital’s latest lease is less a one-off win than a glimpse of the physical backbone now required to keep the AI boom expanding.