Shares of Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) surged 13% after the company announced a landmark lease agreement involving its forthcoming AI-focused data center in North Dakota. Applied Digital revealed it has signed two long-term leases, each spanning around 15 years, with CoreWeave – a prominent provider in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) – to house critical infrastructure at the Ellendale data center campus.
These leases will supply CoreWeave with a combined 250 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity and are projected to generate close to $7 billion in revenue for Applied Digital over the duration of the agreements. The partnership reinforces Applied Digital’s growing status as a crucial infrastructure provider for cutting-edge AI and HPC workloads. Moreover, CoreWeave holds an option to further increase its footprint by an additional 150 MW on the campus, positioning the facility to accommodate escalating demands in AI and HPC technologies.
Wes Cummins, Applied Digital’s Chairman and CEO, conveyed strong optimism about the collaboration, highlighting the company’s strategic readiness to capitalize on the surging AI and HPC markets. The Ellendale campus stands out as one of North America’s most ambitious data center developments, purpose-built for high-density computing environments, with plans to eventually scale up to 1 gigawatt of power capacity.
The first phase – a 100 MW data center dedicated to CoreWeave – is on track to become operational by Q4 2025. The second phase, offering 150 MW, is expected to launch by mid-2026, while a third 150 MW building is in early planning stages, aiming for completion in 2027. Leveraging Ellendale’s energy-efficient climate and prime location, Applied Digital aims to rapidly expand capacity and secure a leadership role in the AI data center sector.
Applied Digital specializes in constructing and managing advanced data centers tailored for AI/ML, blockchain, and other demanding HPC applications, offering services like cloud solutions as a service (CSaaS) and GPU-as-a-Service. This latest deal with CoreWeave marks a significant step forward in the company’s expansion within the digital infrastructure landscape.