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Applied Digital

Applied Digital is a Dallas-based data center company listed on Nasdaq (ticker APLD); formerly Applied Blockchain, it began by hosting cryptocurrency miners and later shifted to building AI and high-performance computing data center campuses for CoreWeaveCoreWeaveCoreWeave is an AI cloud computing company based in New Jersey that started in 2017 as the cryptocurrency miner Atlantic Crypto, later became a provider of AI computing built on Nvidia GPUs, and listed on Nasdaq in March 2025 under the ticker CRWV; its customers include OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft.Open the full entry and hyperscale cloud providers.

Contents15 sections
Key facts

Starting Out in Blockchain Hosting

The company says it was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with Wes Cummins and Jason Zhang as co-founders. Its predecessor had traded on the OTC Pink market as Applied Science Products; under the name Applied Blockchain it then built and leased data centers to cryptocurrency miners and offered hosting services, with its first facility in North Dakota.⁠[1][2]

Uplisting to Nasdaq

On April 13, 2022, Applied Blockchain priced an offering of 8.0 million shares at $5 each, raising $40 million at a price below its downwardly revised range, with plans to list on Nasdaq under the symbol APLD.⁠[2]

Hosting Facilities in North Dakota and Texas

As of October 2022, the company’s first facility, in Jamestown, North Dakota, had 100MW of capacity fully contracted on multi-year terms; a 200MW facility in Garden City, Texas, was under construction, and a planned 180MW facility in Ellendale, North Dakota, was expected to be energized in the first quarter of 2023. Its customers then focused on bitcoin mining, with Marathon Digital Holdings contracted for 276MW in total; the company also said it was in talks with non-cryptocurrency customers about high-performance computing (HPC) applications and expected a pilot of a GPU-based machine learning application.⁠[3]

Renamed Applied Digital

The company announced the planned rename in August 2022, saying the new name better reflected that its data centers support HPC applications beyond cryptocurrency mining. After shareholders approved it at the annual general meeting on November 10, the company formally changed its name from Applied Blockchain, Inc. to Applied Digital Corporation effective November 17, keeping the ticker APLD.⁠[4][5]

250MW Leases with CoreWeave

On June 2, 2025, the company announced two long-term leases of about 15 years each with CoreWeave at its Ellendale, North Dakota, campus, covering 250MW and expected to generate about $7 billion in total revenue over their terms; the first 100MW building was scheduled to come online in late 2025 and a second 150MW building in mid-2026, and CoreWeave held an option on a further 150MW.⁠[6]

CoreWeave Leases Expanded to 400MW

On August 29, 2025, the company signed a further 150MW lease with CoreWeave at its Polaris Forge 1 campus in Ellendale, bringing the three long-term leases to 400MW and its total anticipated contracted lease revenue to about $11 billion.⁠[7]

Polaris Forge 2 Lease and First Delivery

On October 22, 2025, the company announced a 200MW lease with an unnamed U.S. investment-grade hyperscaler at its Polaris Forge 2 campus under construction near Harwood, North Dakota, with an estimated 15-year term and about $5 billion in contracted revenue; the first two buildings were expected to begin coming online in 2026 and reach 200MW in 2027.⁠[8]

On October 27, the first 50MW phase of the first 100MW building at Polaris Forge 1 reached “ready for service” on schedule for CoreWeave, the first delivery under the 400MW deployment.⁠[9]

Cloud Business Separated as ChronoScale

On December 29, 2025, the company announced a non-binding term sheet with EKSO to combine its cloud business with EKSO. The deal closed on May 5, 2026: the company contributed its cloud business to EKSO, which was renamed ChronoScale and trades on Nasdaq as CHRN, positioned as a GPU compute platform for AI training and inference; the company holds about 97% of it (the October 2026 results release gives about 96%).⁠[10][11][12]

Jason Zhang Named President

On January 15, 2026, the company appointed co-founder Jason Zhang, chief strategy officer since August 2025, as president, with Wes Cummins remaining chairman and chief executive officer. Zhang previously worked on the investment teams of Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, investing from the seed stage through the growth stage. Its historical investments include Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, Airbnb, and Stripe; in 2021 it introduced the Sequoia Capital Fund structure, which can continue to hold public securities, and in 2023 its regional businesses became independent brands and partnerships.Open the full entry and MSD Capital and founded the investment and advisory firm Valuefinder in 2019.⁠[1]

April–June 2026: New Leases at Delta Forge and Polaris Forge 3

On April 23, 2026, the company announced that an unnamed U.S. high investment-grade hyperscaler had leased 300MW of its 430MW Delta Forge 1 campus for an estimated 15 years, worth about $7.5 billion in total contracted value. On May 20 the same tenant leased another 300MW at Polaris Forge 3, its fourth campus, worth about $7.5 billion in base-term contracted revenue, taking the company’s contracted capacity past 1GW.⁠[13][14]

On June 8, the company signed a 210MW, 15-year take-or-pay lease with a U.S. high investment-grade hyperscaler at Delta Forge 2, its fifth campus, worth about $5.2 billion in base-term contracted revenue.⁠[15]

July–October 2026: Second Building at Polaris Forge 1 Comes Online

On July 1, 2026, the first 75MW phase of the second building at Polaris Forge 1 reached ready for service, raising the campus’s live capacity to 175MW; after the second 75MW phase came online on October 2, it reached 250MW. The campus is contracted for 400MW of critical IT load at full buildout.⁠[16][17]

First International Opportunity in Finland

On October 6, 2026, the company announced it had secured up to about 1GW of potential power capacity in Finland, its first development opportunity outside the United States, with initial power expected from 2028; it said it was in discussions with global hyperscale customers and that the move did not represent a change in strategy.⁠[18]

As of October 2026: Current Status

As of October 2026, the company designs, develops, owns and operates large data centers for AI and other high-performance computing workloads, with Wes Cummins as chairman and chief executive officer and Jason Zhang as president. As of August 31, 2026, it had leases for about 1.41GW of critical IT load across five campuses, Polaris Forge 1, 2 and 3 in North Dakota, Delta Forge 1 in Louisiana and Delta Forge 2 in Alabama, representing about $36 billion of base-term contracted revenue; CoreWeave is the tenant at Polaris Forge 1. Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 (ended August 31, 2026) was $341.9 million, up 322% year over year.⁠[12][19]

Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts

Sources

  1. Applied Digital Appoints Co-Founder Jason Zhang as President (opens in a new window)
  2. Applied Blockchain prices Nasdaq uplisting at $5, below the downwardly revised range (opens in a new window)
  3. Applied Blockchain Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Results (Form 8-K exhibit) (opens in a new window)
  4. Applied Blockchain Announces Planned Name Change to Applied Digital (opens in a new window)
  5. Applied Blockchain Announces Official Name Change to Applied Digital (opens in a new window)
  6. Applied Digital Announces 250MW AI Data Center Lease With CoreWeave in North Dakota (opens in a new window)
  7. Applied Digital Finalizes Additional 150MW Lease with CoreWeave in North Dakota (opens in a new window)
  8. Applied Digital Announces $5 Billion AI Factory Lease with U.S. Based Investment Grade Hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2 (opens in a new window)
  9. Applied Digital Achieves Ready for Service for Phase 1 at Polaris Forge 1 Building 1 for CoreWeave (opens in a new window)
  10. Applied Digital to Spin Out Cloud Business, Proposes Business Combination with EKSO to Launch ChronoScale (opens in a new window)
  11. Applied Digital Completes Separation of Cloud Business, Establishing ChronoScale as Independent Public Company (opens in a new window)
  12. Applied Digital Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2027 Results (opens in a new window)
  13. Applied Digital Announces New U.S. Based High Investment-Grade Hyperscaler Tenant at Delta Forge 1, a 430 MW AI Factory Campus (opens in a new window)
  14. Applied Digital Reaches Significant Milestone, Surpassing 1 GW of Contracted Capacity (opens in a new window)
  15. Applied Digital Signs 210 MW Lease at Delta Forge 2, Expanding Its AI Factory Franchise Model to a Fifth Campus (opens in a new window)
  16. Applied Digital Delivers Second Building at Polaris Forge 1 (opens in a new window)
  17. Applied Digital Brings an Additional 75 MW of AI Infrastructure Online at Polaris Forge 1 (opens in a new window)
  18. Applied Digital Secures Up to 1 GW of Potential Power Capacity in Finland, Marking First International Development Opportunity (opens in a new window)
  19. Leadership | Applied Digital (opens in a new window)
  20. About | Applied Digital (opens in a new window)