Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD), the US AI data center company, reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 results on October 7 (quarter ended August 31, 2026): revenue of $341.9 million, up 322% year over year and far above the LSEG consensus of $133.8 million. Once a crypto-mining hosting operator, the company has bet everything on AI compute infrastructure — and this was its strongest quarter yet since the pivot. As Barron's put it in its headline: the data center bet is starting to pay off.
Revenue soared — and so did costs. Total costs and expenses hit $404.3 million (from $90.7 million a year earlier), with interest expense alone jumping from $8.0 million to $77.4 million, driven by new data center buildouts, stock-based compensation, and expansion financing. The GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders was $221.0 million, or $0.76 a share, wider than last year's $18.5 million. But the adjusted net loss was just $4.1 million, or $0.01 a share — well ahead of the consensus expectation of a $0.29 loss. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $64.4 million.
By segment, HPC hosting revenue reached $262.6 million in the quarter — base rent of $65.8 million (up from $44.1 million last quarter), tenant fit-out services of $183.5 million, and tenant recoveries of $13.3 million, with segment operating profit of $33.4 million. Legacy data center hosting for crypto mining, by contrast, brought in $37.8 million, roughly flat year over year, with operating profit of $13.3 million. AI infrastructure is now unambiguously the company's core business.
The growth rests on long-term leases. The company has signed leases for about 1.41 gigawatts of critical IT load across five campuses — Polaris Forge 1/2/3 in North Dakota and Delta Forge 1 in Louisiana plus Delta Forge 2 in Alabama — representing roughly $36 billion in contracted revenue over base terms (about $86 billion including all renewals). Named tenants: CoreWeave at Polaris Forge 1, an investment-grade hyperscaler at Polaris Forge 2, and a tier-one investment-grade hyperscaler at Delta Forge 1/2 and Polaris Forge 3. A new 210-megawatt, 15-year lease at Delta Forge 2 announced in June carries roughly $5.2 billion in base-term contracted revenue.
Polaris Forge 1 had 175 megawatts live at quarter end (Building 2 Phase 1 was delivered July 1), rising to 250 megawatts after a second 75-megawatt phase was delivered on October 1; the company expects 300 megawatts across its North Dakota campuses by the end of calendar 2026. To fund the buildout, it closed $1.59 billion of 7.000% senior secured notes due 2031, financing a third 150-megawatt HPC building at Polaris Forge 1 and repaying a $300 million bridge facility. As of August 31, the company held $3.7 billion in cash and carried $6.4 billion in debt. The press release offered no explicit forward financial guidance.
APLD closed down 6% on October 7 — the widening loss spooked some holders — then rose about 3.8% to $24.71 in premarket trading the next day as the revenue beat sank in. The stock is down 15% over the last 52 weeks, trading in a range of $19.00 to $50.72. CEO Wes Cummins said in a statement the company is "building for the long term," focused on "securing durable, high-quality, long-term contracts with proven, tier-one, investment-grade hyperscalers that are leaders in the AI industry."