Applied Digital has signed a landmark lease agreement with a U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscaler for its Polaris Forge 2 campus, currently under construction near Harwood, North Dakota. The deal, valued at approximately $5 billion in total contracted revenue over a 15-year term, secures 200 megawatts (MW) of dedicated IT load designed to support advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
The hyperscaler also holds a first right of refusal for an additional 800 MW, positioning the full 1-gigawatt (GW) Polaris Forge 2 campus for potential expansion.
With this new lease, Applied Digital now has a combined total of 600 MW contracted across its two North Dakota campuses – Polaris Forge 1 and 2 – both serving two of the world’s largest hyperscalers. The announcement reinforces Applied Digital’s growing status as one of the most rapidly scaling developers of AI infrastructure in the United States, as hyperscale cloud and AI demand drive unprecedented investment in compute power and energy capacity.
“What sets us apart isn’t just the size of our pipeline – it’s how fast we can deliver,” said Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital. “Execution is the real constraint in this industry, and our team continues to show that large-scale, next-generation data centers can be designed, financed, and built faster and more efficiently than anyone thought possible. Polaris Forge 2 represents that same momentum, and it underscores both our partnerships and our role in reshaping the AI infrastructure landscape.”
The 900-acre Polaris Forge 2 campus is engineered for high efficiency and sustainability, targeting a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.18 and near-zero water consumption. Its first two buildings, totaling 200 MW, are expected to begin coming online in 2026, reaching full deployment in 2027. The design incorporates liquid cooling systems and other high-density power features, enabling the campus to handle the compute demands of AI and HPC workloads at scale while minimizing environmental impact.
Applied Digital’s Development Model
The agreement marks another milestone in what has been a year of record expansion for Applied Digital. Earlier in 2025, the company announced a 150 MW lease with CoreWeave at its Polaris Forge 1 facility, a $5 billion AI infrastructure partnership with Macquarie Asset Management, and a series of awards recognizing both its innovation and community impact. The company was recently ranked first on the Dallas Business Journal’s “Fast 50” list, reflecting its rapid growth and emerging leadership in digital infrastructure.
Applied Digital’s development model – described internally as “Different by Design” – emphasizes speed, sustainability, and regional optimization. Its facilities are strategically built in the U.S. heartland, leveraging affordable energy, favorable climate conditions, and scalable land resources to support AI infrastructure expansion.
“Our AI factories are redefining how and where hyperscale infrastructure gets built,” added Wes Cummins. “We’re proving that the next chapter of AI computing can be powered from the heartland – built responsibly, delivered quickly, and designed for the intelligence era.”
