Applied Digital has signed a 15-year lease agreement with a new US-based investment-grade hyperscaler at its Delta Forge 1 AI Factory campus, carrying an estimated total contracted value of approximately $7.5 billion. The lease covers 300 megawatts of critical IT load at the 430 MW campus, which spans more than 500 acres and purpose-built to support large-scale artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure. Initial operations at Delta Forge 1 are expected to begin in mid-2027.
The new tenant becomes Applied Digital’s second US-based investment-grade hyperscaler across its AI Factory portfolio and its third hyperscale tenant overall. With the addition, the company’s total contracted lease revenue has now surpassed $23 billion. More than half of that contracted revenue now comes from investment-grade customers, a metric that significantly strengthens the quality and visibility of Applied Digital’s long-term revenue base.
What the Deal Covers
The lease covers 300 MW of critical IT load at Delta Forge 1, a 430 MW AI Factory campus spanning more than 500 acres in the southern United States. The campus design incorporates high-density power delivery, advanced cooling architecture, and operational infrastructure built specifically for AI training and inference workloads at scale. Applied Digital uses proprietary waterless cooling technology across its AI Factory campuses, a differentiator the company positions as central to both its sustainability credentials and its operational cost structure.
Alongside the lease announcement, Applied Digital disclosed plans for up to $300 million in senior secured bridge financing for its Polaris Forge 1 Building 3 data center and an additional revolving credit facility of up to $300 million to support development activities and working capital across its platform. Applied Digital shares rose more than 10% following the announcement.
What It Means for the AI Data Center Market
“We now have two US-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.
The deal reflects the continued tightening of the AI data center leasing market, where hyperscalers are committing capacity years in advance as internal infrastructure buildout timelines remain stretched. As covered in our analysis of AI inference cost in enterprise infrastructure, the demand for dedicated AI compute capacity from investment-grade customers is driving a new class of long-duration lease structures that are reshaping how independent data center operators finance and position their portfolios.
