Applied Digital (APLD, Financial) surged 42% after striking two 15-year lease agreements with CoreWeave (CRWV, Financial) worth approximately $7 billion in total revenue.
Under the deal, Applied will deliver 250 MW of IT power to CoreWeave's Ellendale, North Dakota, AI and HPC data center, with an option to add another 150 MW. The first 100 MW facility is slated for late 2025, the next 150 MW by mid-2026, and a third 150 MW building could launch in 2027—part of Ellendale's planned 1 GW capacity.
As Applied transitions toward a data-center-focused REIT, CEO Wes Cummins says these long-term leases cement its role as a foundational infrastructure provider for Neocloud innovators like CoreWeave, which rents Nvidia (NVDA)-powered GPU clusters. CoreWeave's stock also climbed nearly 5% on the news.
Investors should care because the 15-year, multi-gigawatt lease stream provides Applied Digital with predictable, high-visibility cash flows and validates its pivot to large-scale AI data centers just as demand for GPU-backed cloud services soars.
With Ellendale's first building breaking ground next year, markets will watch Applied Digital's progress on that 100 MW deployment and any additional 150 MW commitments that could push Ellendale toward its 1 GW target.
