Applied Digital signs $7.5 billion AI data center lease with US hyperscaler

Published: 2026-04-23 12:21:39 ET APLD

Published on 04/23/2026 at 12:21 pm EDT

April 23 (Reuters) - Applied Digital has signed a long-term lease worth $7.5 billion with an unnamed U.S.-based hyperscaler at its new Delta Forge 1 site, it said on Thursday, strengthening its position as a data center provider for artificial intelligence workloads.

Shares of the company rose more than 9% in premarket trading following the announcement.

The 15-year lease covers 300 megawatts of computing capacity at the 430-megawatt Delta Forge 1 site in southern U.S., the company said.

The deal makes the customer Applied Digital's second U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscale tenant across its data center sites and lifts total contracted lease revenue to more than $23 billion.

The agreement comes as demand for data centers continues to climb, with major technology companies including Amazon, Alphabet's Google, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle -- collectively called hyperscalers -- investing billions of dollars to secure facilities with enough computing power and cooling to support AI systems.

More than half of Applied Digital's contracted revenue is now backed by investment-grade customers, the company said.

Applied Digital builds and operates large data centers designed to support AI, cloud computing and other data-intensive workloads, placing it among companies benefiting from the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.

Separately, Applied Digital said it expects to secure up to $600 million in financing, including a $300 million senior secured bridge facility for development at its Polaris Forge 1 campus and an up to $300 million revolving credit facility to fund broader development and working capital needs.

Delta Forge 1 is the company's newest campus, spanning more than 500 acres and built to handle large-scale AI operations.

The site is designed with high-capacity power and cooling systems, and initial operations are expected to begin in mid-2027.

(Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)