Company Profile
Founding
Applied Digital (ticker: APLD) was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc., it changed its name to its current name in November 2022.
Company Transformation
Applied Digital, formerly known as Applied Blockchain, originally focused on cryptocurrency mining and mining rig hosting services. In recent years, it has expanded its service offerings to include applications requiring high computing power, such as AI and machine learning.
Initial Public Offering
Applied Digital’s shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on April 13, 2022, under the ticker symbol APLD.
Top Shareholders
Macquarie Asset Management
On January 5, 2025, Applied Digital announced that Macquarie Asset Management would invest up to $5 billion in the company, sending its stock price soaring 16%.
Macquarie Asset Management will hold a 15% stake in Applied Digital’s high-performance computing business, while Applied Digital will retain the remaining 85%.
Nvidia
Nvidia is also a major investor in Applied Digital’s data center business. According to Nvidia’s 13F filing released in September 2024, Nvidia has acquired a stake of approximately 3% in the company. Applied Digital’s stock price rose 4% on this news.
According to Nvidia’s 13F filing released in mid-August 2025, as of June 30, Applied Digital held a 1.79% investment allocation. Applied Digital specializes in building and operating data center infrastructure for high-performance computing. It is Nvidia’s third-largest holding among US-listed companies, after CoreWeave and ARM.
Regarding Arm, please see my posts of: “Arm and Qualcomm’s IP licensing lawsuit set to be settled“, “Arm relisted successfully and it’s ushering in its best days“, “How does the ubiquitous Arm make money?“, “Why nVidia failed to acquire ARM?“, “How much potential does ARM’s WOA (Windows on ARM) has?“
As for CoreWeave, please see my posts on the company: “How GPU farms CoreWeave make money?“
Related Companies
Applied Digital announced in a press release on September 5, 2025, that it had received a strategic investment of US$160 million from Nvidia and real estate development giant Related Companies to expand its existing hyperscale data centers. The investment will subsequently add 300 megawatts of data center capacity to meet surging data center demand.
On September 5th, Applied Digital’s stock price soared 65.74% following this news.
Competitive advantages
Electricity Cost Advantage
Applied Digital is able to build a next-generation data center that supports the demands of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Its key features are high efficiency, scalability, and low energy costs. Electricity prices in North Dakota, where the company is based, are 24% lower than the national average, significantly reducing operating costs and enhancing its competitiveness.
Nvidia’s Endorsement
With investments from Nvidia, Related Group, and Macquarie Asset Management, funding will not be a problem. Furthermore, there’s no doubt that Nvidia will leverage its investment to generate revenue for Applied Digital.
Customers and Partners
Reliance on CoreWeave
Applied Digital just signed two 15-year leases with CoreWeave in June 2020, generating approximately $7 billion in revenue for the data center operator over the lease period, a testament to its high-performance computing strategy.
The deal could be a critical lifeline for Applied Digital, which is facing challenges in the data center hosting sector as it transitions to a data center real estate investment trust. Following the announcement of the leases, the company’s stock surged 17% in pre-market trading.
CoreWeave also benefited
CoreWeave leases data center infrastructure from companies like Applied Digital, helping to alleviate some of the financial burden of delivering AI-centric cloud services. CoreWeave’s stock price rose nearly 4% as a result.
Powered by Nvidia
Note: Both CoreWeave and Applied Digital are major holdings of Nvidia. With support from Nvidia, CoreWeave selected Applied Digital to provide 250 megawatts of power for its Ellendale, North Dakota, campus, with an option for an additional 150 megawatts.
Other Customers
Applied Digital also has an unnamed major customer with a $180 million contract signed over two years in 2023.
Another notable Applied Digital customer is Character.AI, which has a $640 million contract signed over three years.
Operating Performance
Q1 2025 Performance
Despite recent Q1 2025 results missing expectations (actual revenue of $52.9 million compared to an expected $62.9 million), the company maintains strong partnerships. Management expects significant growth with the phased commissioning of the Ellendale facility beginning in Q4 2025.
New data center
Applied Digital will break ground on a new artificial intelligence data center in September. The company plans to invest $3 billion in the facility. Applied Digital’s stock surged 16.1% after the company announced it would build the new data center, called Polaris Forge 2.
Outlook
Despite the short-term revenue miss, the long-term opportunity remains substantial. The booming development of artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented demand for high-performance computing infrastructure. Applied Digital’s partnership with CoreWeave positions it perfectly to capitalize on this growth opportunity.
Capital Market Performance
Stock Price Performance
Since its IPO, as of August 15, 2025, the company’s stock price has soared 23,383.33%!
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