Applied Digital Signs $5.2 Billion AI Data Center Lease for New Southern Campus

Applied Digital has signed a 15-year lease for 210 megawatts of critical IT load at a new AI data center campus in the southern (NYSE: SO) US, extending the company’s contracted backlog as hyperscalers continue to lock up large-scale power capacity for artificial intelligence workloads.

The Dallas-based company said Monday that the lease at Delta Forge 2 is with a US-based high investment-grade hyperscaler. The take-or-pay agreement is expected to generate about $5.2 billion in base-term contracted revenue, or $12.7 billion if all renewal options are exercised over a 30-year period.

Initial operations at the campus are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2028. Applied Digital said the site will use its proprietary waterless cooling technology and high-density power infrastructure designed for large-scale AI training and inference workloads.

The agreement marks Applied Digital’s fifth AI Factory campus and its third long-term lease with the same investment-grade hyperscaler. The company did not identify the customer or disclose the specific state for the new campus.

With the new contract, Applied Digital said its leased portfolio now spans 1.4 gigawatts of critical IT load and about 2.15 gigawatts of grid-connected utility power across five campuses. The company said its total contracted base-term lease revenue now stands at roughly $36 billion, or $86 billion if all renewal options are exercised.

About 70% of that contracted revenue is backed by US-based investment-grade hyperscalers, according to Applied Digital.

The deal underscores how quickly AI infrastructure developers are converting access to power and land into long-term contracted revenue. Applied Digital, which previously operated data centers for blockchain and other high-performance computing workloads, has increasingly repositioned itself around AI data center development as hyperscalers seek multi-hundred-megawatt campuses.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Wes Cummins said the company’s “franchise model” is built around replicating a core team of design, construction and operations professionals across each campus and market.

“Continued demand from leading hyperscalers across five campuses is strong validation of our model,” Cummins said in the statement.

Applied Digital said its site-selection strategy focuses on communities where large infrastructure investments can support employment, expand the local tax base and create sustained economic activity. The company said Delta Forge 2 is expected to bring local employment and construction activity to its host community.

The new lease follows a wave of capital formation and leasing activity across AI infrastructure developers, bitcoin miners and data center operators, as investors increasingly value companies based on contracted megawatts, credit quality of tenants and the timeline for energizing campuses.