Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD) shares are up on Thursday morning as the company disclosed a significant lease agreement with a new U.S.-based high investment-grade hyperscaler.

• Applied Digital stock is among today’s top performers. Why are APLD shares rallying?

Signs Major Hyperscaler Lease Deal

The lease at its 430 MW Delta Forge 1 AI Factory campus is valued at around $7.5 billion over 15 years.

The company expects it to enhance the revenue stream and diversify its customer base.

The lease covers 300 megawatts of critical IT load, aimed at supporting artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure.

With this agreement, the tenant becomes the company's second U.S. investment-grade hyperscaler across its AI Factory portfolio, spanning three campuses.

The addition brings Applied Digital's total contracted lease revenue to over $23 billion and further diversifies its customer base with a third hyperscale tenant. Over half of the company's contracted revenue is now backed by investment-grade customers.

“With this agreement, we now have two U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscalers across our portfolio, marking an important step in the continued diversification of our customer base and strengthening the overall quality and visibility of our contracted revenue,” said Wes Cummins, chairman and CEO of Applied Digital.

Delta Forge 1

Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital's newest AI Factory campus, spans over 500 acres and is designed to support large-scale AI workloads. It features high-density power systems, advanced cooling and efficient operational design to deliver consistent, scalable performance.

Built on the repeatable AI Factory model, the site is engineered for both AI training and inference in high-density environments. The company projects the operations to begin in mid-2027.

Separately, Applied Digital plans to secure up to $300 million in a senior secured bridge facility to fund development of the 150 MW Building 3 data center at its Polaris Forge 1 campus.

The company is also arranging an additional up to $300 million revolving credit facility to support broader platform development.

APLD Earnings Preview and Analyst Price Targets

Applied Digital is slated to provide its next financial update on July 29 (estimated).

  • EPS Estimate: Loss of 16 cents (Down from Loss of 3 cents year-over-year)
  • Revenue Estimate: $95.48 million (Up from $38.01 million YoY)

Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy Rating with a consensus price target of $30.47. Recent analyst moves include:

  • Citizens: Market Outperform (Maintains target to $40 on April 9)
  • B. Riley Securities: Buy (Raises target to $53 on Jan. 9)
  • Roth Capital: Buy (Raises target to $58 on Jan. 8)

APLD Stock Price Activity: Applied Digital shares were up 12.98% at $36.64 at publicatoin on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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