How is Applied Digital (APLD) funding its AI data centre build-out?

Sonal Goyal

28 October 2026 05:00 PM AEDT

How is Applied Digital (APLD) funding its AI data centre build-out?

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Key Highlights

Fiscal first-quarter 2027 Revenue was $341.9 million, up 322 per cent from $80.9 million a year earlier.
The net loss attributable to common stockholders from continuing operations was $221.0 million, or $0.76 per share.
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash were $3.7 billion at 31 August 2026, against total Debt of $6.4 billion.

The latest results

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD), which develops data centres for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads, reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 results on 7 October 2026 for the quarter ended 31 August 2026. Total revenue was $341.9 million, up 322 per cent from $80.9 million a year earlier.

Adjusted revenue, which excludes its ChronoScale subsidiary, was $300.4 million compared with $64.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $64.4 million against $0.5 million.

Revenue growth alongside a large loss

The revenue growth sits beside a substantial loss. Net loss attributable to common stockholders from continuing operations was $221.0 million, or $0.76 per share, compared with $18.5 million, or $0.07 per share, a year earlier. Including discontinued operations of $16.1 million, the total loss was $237.1 million, or $0.82 per share. On the company's adjusted basis, the net loss was smaller at $4.1 million, or $0.01 per diluted share.

In HPC Hosting, revenue of $262.6 million included $65.8 million of base rent and $183.5 million of tenant fit-out services. Tenant fit-out services therefore made up most of the segment's revenue, about 70 per cent. Data Center Hosting revenue was $37.8 million, essentially flat on the $37.9 million reported a year before.

Contracted capacity and construction

The company reports about 1.41 gigawatts of leased critical IT load across five campuses, with contracted revenue of roughly $36 billion over initial base terms, or about $86 billion if all renewal Options were exercised. Those are contractual figures, not forecasts, and depend on project completion.

At Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota, 250 megawatts is live, with a third 150 megawatt building under construction. The company expects delivered critical IT load across its North Dakota campuses to reach 300 megawatts by the end of calendar 2026, driven by initial operations at Polaris Forge 2. It issued no formal financial guidance.

The Delta Forge 2 lease, announced on 8 June 2026, covers 210 megawatts over 15 years with about $5.2 billion of base-term contracted revenue. Tenants named in the release include CoreWeave at Polaris Forge 1, with the other campuses leased to investment-grade hyperscalers that the company does not name.

Other developments

Applied Digital owns about 96 per cent of ChronoScale, a Nasdaq-listed accelerated-compute Subsidiary whose results are consolidated but excluded from non-GAAP measures. ChronoScale announced a 50 megawatt artificial intelligence compute deployment with Microsoft.

The company also secured up to about one gigawatt of potential power capacity in Finland, and signed a power purchase agreement with Base Electron, in which it holds roughly 10 per cent of the equity, for energy from an approximately 1,200 megawatt gas-fired Facility in North Dakota.

Financing and what to watch

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash stood at $3.7 billion at 31 August 2026, while total debt was $6.4 billion. The company issued $1.59 billion of 7.000 per cent senior secured notes due 2031 at par through an APLD ComputeCo 3 subsidiary, with proceeds funding the third Polaris Forge 1 building and repaying a $300 million bridge facility. Debt of that scale, set against a quarter with a large GAAP loss, is central to how the Business should be assessed.

Three items merit attention going forward. First, delivery of the 300 megawatt North Dakota target by the end of 2026. Second, how much of reported revenue comes from recurring rent rather than one-off fit-out services. Third, the cost and terms of further Debt Financing as additional campuses are built.

FAQs

Q: What was Applied Digital's revenue in fiscal first-quarter 2027?

A: Total revenue was $341.9 million, up 322 per cent from $80.9 million a year earlier. Adjusted revenue, excluding ChronoScale, was $300.4 million.

Q: How much leased capacity does Applied Digital report?

A: The company reports about 1.41 gigawatts of leased critical IT load across five campuses. Contracted revenue is roughly $36 billion over initial base terms, or about $86 billion if all renewal options were exercised.

Q: How is the company financing its build-out?

A: It issued $1.59 billion of 7.000 per cent senior secured notes due 2031 at par to fund the third Polaris Forge 1 building and repay a $300 million bridge facility. Total debt was $6.4 billion at 31 August 2026.

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