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Applied Digital Strikes $5 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal with U.S. Hyperscaler

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Applied Digital (APLD.O) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a $5 billion, 15-year lease agreement with a U.S.-based hyperscaler for 200 megawatts (MW) of capacity at its Polaris Forge 2 data center campus in North Dakota, solidifying its position as a major player in AI infrastructure development. The deal sent Applied Digital’s shares up 4% in premarket trading.

The agreement is expected to generate about $5 billion in contracted revenue over its term and reflects the surging demand for high-performance compute capacity driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence applications. Tech giants and AI developers are racing to secure energy-intensive infrastructure capable of training and deploying advanced language and vision models.

With this latest contract, Applied Digital’s total leased capacity across its Polaris Forge 1 and 2 campuses now reaches 600 MW, marking a significant milestone in its expansion strategy. The company also recently finalized a separate 150 MW lease with CoreWeave (CRWV.O) earlier this year, underscoring its growing role as a key infrastructure provider for the AI ecosystem.

Applied Digital’s stock has soared more than 325% in 2025, buoyed by investor enthusiasm for companies building AI-ready data centers capable of handling the computational load required by large language models and generative AI systems.

Industry analysts say the deal highlights how AI infrastructure has become the new frontier of big tech investment, with hyperscalers — massive cloud computing companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft — locking in long-term capacity agreements to meet explosive AI demand.

The company’s Polaris Forge complex in North Dakota is one of several U.S. projects focused on delivering high-density compute environments optimized for AI workloads. Applied Digital said the partnership will also support future energy efficiency improvements and renewable power integration, aligning with broader sustainability goals across the data center industry.

ISS Urges Investors to Reject CoreWeave’s $9 Billion Acquisition of Core Scientific

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Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has advised investors to vote against the proposed $9 billion all-stock merger between artificial intelligence infrastructure company CoreWeave (CRWV.O) and data computing firm Core Scientific (CORZ.O). The shareholder vote is scheduled for October 30.

In its recommendation, ISS said that Core Scientific has shown strong independent performance and can continue to grow without being acquired. The firm noted that the company’s current trajectory suggests it could thrive as a standalone entity.

CoreWeave, which provides cloud infrastructure tailored for AI workloads, first proposed the acquisition in July, offering an implied value of $20.40 per share. However, investor Two Seas Capital quickly announced its opposition to the deal, citing concerns about the sale process, valuation, and the fixed exchange ratio, which leaves Core Scientific shareholders exposed to fluctuations in CoreWeave’s stock price.

Since the announcement, CoreWeave’s shares have declined, reducing the total deal value. Meanwhile, Core Scientific’s stock rose more than 5% in post-market trading on Monday, closing at $18.81, as investors appeared to favor keeping the company independent rather than moving forward with the merger.

Core Scientific urges shareholders to approve $9 billion CoreWeave merger

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Core Scientific’s board has called on shareholders to vote in favor of its proposed $9 billion all-stock sale to CoreWeave, saying the merger would deliver long-term growth and risk reduction benefits for the crypto miner.

In an investor presentation released Wednesday, the board said it had “unanimously determined” that the deal represented the best outcome for all shareholders. The merger, announced in July, values Core Scientific at $20.40 per share and would combine its energy-intensive mining infrastructure with CoreWeave’s AI-focused data center network.

The deal promises significant cost savings, operational synergies, and improved access to capital, according to the company. CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud provider powered by Nvidia AI chips, would integrate Core Scientific’s facilities to support large-scale AI model training — an increasingly valuable use case as demand for compute power surges.

However, the proposal faces pushback from Two Seas Capital, Core Scientific’s largest shareholder with a 6.3% stake, which said it plans to vote against the deal, arguing it “materially undervalues” the company and poses “substantial economic risk” to investors.

Core Scientific said the transaction would help it diversify beyond cryptocurrency mining and strengthen its position in the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.