Applied Digital rises on 300MW Polaris Froge 3 hyperscaler lease deal

2026-05-20 17:16:24 ET

Applied Digital ( APLD ) surged over 8% in after-hours trading to $42.75 after closing at $39.52, following the announcement of a major long-term lease agreement....

The stock has continued its strong monthly rally, gaining around 22%, although it still recorded a weekly decline of nearly 8%. The move reflects renewed investor focus on its expanding AI infrastructure pipeline.

The company said it has signed a 15-year take-or-pay lease with the same U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscaler previously partnered at Delta Forge 1.

The deal is tied to Polaris Forge 3, a new AI Factory campus designed for 300 MW of critical IT load supported by ~430 MW of grid power. The agreement carries about $7.5B in base contracted revenue and up to $18.2B including options.

With this, Applied Digital now has roughly $31B in contracted lease revenue across four campuses, rising to $73B including renewals, with 1.2 GW of IT load and 1,670 MW of total utility capacity.

The company noted ~65% of revenue is backed by investment-grade hyperscalers, including ties to CoreWeave ( CRWV ) .

Polaris Forge 3 spans over 600 acres and integrates waterless cooling technology, with operations expected to begin in August 2027.

According to a Seeking Alpha analyst , valuation concerns remain, with APLD trading near 23x FY27 sales versus Core Scientific ( CORZ ) at 14x CY26 sales.

Ratings remain mixed, with quant “hold,” Seeking Alpha analysts “buy,” and Wall Street consensus “strong buy.” The stock still outperformed the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) index , delivering 52.61% YTD gains versus 8.43%.

Read the full article on Seeking Alpha

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