Applied Digital Confirms Brookwood, Alabama, as Site of Delta Forge 2 AI Factory
Applied Digital has identified Brookwood, Alabama, as the location of its Delta Forge 2 AI data center campus, filling in a geographic detail left undisclosed when it announced a 210-megawatt lease in June.
The development represents more than $3.2 billion in investment by Applied Digital and its tenant, WBRC reported on Sept. 24, citing a company announcement. The campus is expected to occupy about 1.26 million square feet across 160 acres of a nearly 1,300-acre property.
The confirmation connects the Alabama project to a lease Applied Digital announced on June 8, when it described Delta Forge 2 only as being in a new southern state. That agreement covers 210 MW of critical IT load under a 15-year take-or-pay contract with an unidentified US hyperscaler carrying a high investment-grade credit rating.
Applied Digital said the lease represents about $5.2 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term, potentially rising to $12.7 billion over 30 years if all renewal options are exercised. Those figures represent future lease revenue, separate from the investment in developing the campus.
In June, the company targeted the first quarter of 2028 for initial operations and said the facility would use its waterless cooling technology. The agreement made Delta Forge 2 its fifth AI campus and brought its contracted portfolio at the time to about 1.4 gigawatts of critical IT capacity and $36 billion in base-term lease revenue, according to the announcement.
Brookwood had emerged as a potential Applied Digital location through environmental records before the company confirmed its plans. WBRC reported in August that Alabama’s Department of Environmental Management issued a construction stormwater permit to APLD BHM-01 LLC on July 20. The application described a roughly 2-million-square-foot project along Brookwood Industrial Parkway, with construction runoff entering Hurricane Creek and its tributaries.
The project also comes with substantial local incentives. The Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority approved a package involving about $314.5 million in tax abatements, the Tuscaloosa Thread reported. The package includes approximately $140.7 million in property-tax abatements over 20 years and $173.8 million in construction sales and use tax abatements. Mayor Joe Barger told the outlet that additional county commission and city council votes remained.
Applied Digital has committed $270 million in community benefit payments over 20 years, alongside projected education tax payments of about $131.5 million over that period, according to the company statement cited by WBRC. The company expects construction employment to exceed 1,000 workers at its peak and the completed campus to support more than 100 full-time onsite jobs.
