Applied Digital Stock Pops on Massive 150-Megawatt AI Data Center Expansion

Oct 10 - Applied Digital APLD shares jumped about 16% on early Friday trading after the company posted stronger-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results and announced a major expansion of its data center capacity.

Revenue rose 84% year over year to $64.2 million, surpassing Wall Street's estimate of $54.6 million. The digital infrastructure provider reported a non-GAAP loss of $0.03 per share, a narrower loss than analysts had forecast. Adjusted EBITDA stood at $537,000, while the operating margin widened to negative 34.7% from negative 24.2% a year earlier.

Applied Digital also secured an additional 150-megawatt lease for its Polaris Forge 1 campus, bringing all 400 MW of critical IT load under contract with CoreWeave (CRVW). The new agreement is expected to generate about $11 billion in lease revenue over a 15-year term.

Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins said the expansion underscores the company's role as a strategic infrastructure partner amid an estimated $350 billion in hyperscale investments for AI deployment this year.