BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Applied Digital has signed a major long-term agreement with a U.S.-based hyperscale technology customer that is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue and further strengthen the company’s position in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure market.
The company announced that it has entered into a 15-year lease agreement at its Delta Forge 2 facility, part of its next-generation AI-focused data center campus. The contract is projected to generate approximately $5.2 billion in revenue over the initial term of the agreement, underscoring the enormous demand for specialized computing infrastructure as technology companies continue to invest heavily in artificial intelligence.
Investors responded positively to the announcement, sending Applied Digital shares sharply higher in after-hours trading as markets assessed the significance of another major commitment from a large technology customer seeking capacity to support AI-related operations.
The agreement comes during an unprecedented boom in data center construction and infrastructure investment across the United States. Major technology companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to expand their computing capabilities as competition intensifies in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and advanced digital services.
As AI models become larger and more computationally intensive, demand for data center capacity, electricity and high-performance infrastructure has surged. Industry leaders are racing to secure long-term access to facilities capable of supporting next-generation workloads, creating opportunities for companies that build and operate specialized AI data centers.
Applied Digital said the newly signed contract covers 210 megawatts of computing capacity at Delta Forge 2, which is being developed as part of the company’s broader AI Factory campus strategy. The project is designed specifically to accommodate the intensive computing requirements associated with artificial intelligence training and inference workloads.
The agreement is structured as a take-or-pay lease, a model commonly used in large infrastructure and energy projects. Under such arrangements, the customer commits to paying for contracted capacity regardless of actual usage levels, providing the facility operator with predictable long-term revenue streams and reducing financial uncertainty.
While Applied Digital declined to identify the customer, the company described it as an investment-grade U.S.-based hyperscaler. Industry observers generally use the term “hyperscaler” to refer to the world’s largest cloud and technology companies, which operate vast networks of data centers and provide computing services to businesses and consumers worldwide.
Company executives noted that the latest agreement represents the third long-term lease signed with the same customer, highlighting what appears to be an expanding strategic relationship between the two organizations.
The scale of the deal becomes even more significant when potential extensions are considered. According to Applied Digital, if all available renewal options are exercised, the agreement could ultimately generate approximately $12.7 billion in revenue over a 30-year period.
The contract adds to an already substantial portfolio of long-term commitments secured by the company. Applied Digital reported that approximately 70% of its contracted revenue is now backed by U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscale customers, providing a strong foundation of financially stable clients.
The company said its contracted infrastructure portfolio now spans five separate campuses and represents approximately 1.4 gigawatts of critical information technology load. In addition, the facilities are supported by roughly 2.15 gigawatts of utility-connected electrical capacity, reflecting the enormous energy requirements associated with modern artificial intelligence operations.
The growth in long-term customer commitments has significantly expanded Applied Digital’s projected revenue base. The company said contracted lease revenue under existing agreements now totals approximately $36 billion over the base terms of its contracts.
Should all renewal options across its portfolio ultimately be exercised, that figure would increase dramatically to an estimated $86 billion. The numbers illustrate how rapidly the market for AI infrastructure has evolved and how valuable large-scale computing facilities have become in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence systems.
Delta Forge 2 is expected to play a central role in the company’s future growth plans. The facility is being designed with infrastructure specifically tailored to the needs of AI customers, including advanced cooling systems and high-density computing environments capable of supporting powerful processors and graphics processing units.
One of the project’s key technological features is its waterless cooling system. Traditional data centers often consume large amounts of water to cool servers and maintain operating temperatures. Waterless cooling technology seeks to reduce environmental impact while improving efficiency, a growing priority as data centers face increasing scrutiny over energy and resource consumption.
The facility will also feature high-power-density infrastructure, allowing customers to deploy large numbers of advanced AI chips within a relatively compact footprint. Such capabilities have become increasingly important as technology companies seek to maximize computing performance while managing energy and space constraints.
Industry analysts have noted that access to reliable power has become one of the most important competitive factors in the data center sector. AI workloads require enormous amounts of electricity, and securing sufficient grid capacity has become a critical challenge for operators and customers alike.
The broader market continues to experience extraordinary growth driven by artificial intelligence investment. Companies across the technology sector are committing unprecedented levels of capital to data centers, networking equipment, processors and energy infrastructure as they compete to build the next generation of AI systems.
The resulting surge in demand has transformed data centers from relatively specialized real estate assets into strategic infrastructure that underpins the global AI economy. Long-term lease agreements such as the one announced by Applied Digital are increasingly viewed as indicators of future growth in the sector.
Construction and development work at Delta Forge 2 is expected to continue over the coming years, with initial operations currently scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2028. Once operational, the campus is expected to provide substantial computing capacity for artificial intelligence applications and contribute to the growing network of facilities supporting the industry’s rapid expansion.
As technology companies continue pouring resources into AI development, infrastructure providers such as Applied Digital are positioning themselves at the center of one of the largest investment cycles in the history of the digital economy. The company’s latest multibillion-dollar lease agreement highlights both the scale of demand for AI-ready facilities and the growing importance of data center operators in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
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