So here’s a fun Friday story: while most of us were probably thinking about weekend plans, Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) decided to absolutely lose its mind and rocket up 28% in a single day. And honestly? It makes total sense once you dig into what happened.
Let’s back up. Applied Digital is basically the landlord for AI companies – they build and operate the massive data centers that power all those ChatGPT conversations and AI image generators we’re all obsessed with. Think of them as the picks-and-shovels play during the AI gold rush, except instead of shovels, they’re renting out warehouse-sized computer farms.
The Numbers That Made Wall Street Go “Whoa”
Their latest earnings report was what we in the business call “a banger.” Revenue hit $64.2 million – that’s 84% higher than last year and way better than the $50 million analysts were expecting. Sure, they’re still losing money (welcome to growth mode), but even their losses were smaller than expected.
But here’s where it gets spicy: they just locked in a massive deal with CoreWeave for 150 megawatts at their North Dakota campus. To put that in perspective, that’s enough power to run about 120,000 homes, except instead of powering Netflix binges, it’s training the next generation of AI models.
Building an AI Empire, One Data Center at a Time
The really wild part? This North Dakota campus is now fully booked with $11 billion – yes, billion with a B – in total contracted revenue. They’re literally printing money by renting out space to companies that need somewhere to park their AI supercomputers.
And they’re not stopping there. CEO Wes Cummins dropped this gem: “With hyperscalers expected to invest approximately $350 billion into AI deployment this year, we believe we are in a prime position to serve as the modern-day picks and shovels of the intelligence era.” Translation: “We’re about to get very, very rich.”
They’re already breaking ground on a second campus that’ll come online in 2026, and they’re in “advanced discussions” with another major client. When that deal closes, they’ll have 600 megawatts of capacity locked up across two sites.
Wall Street Gets Excited (Really Excited)
The analyst upgrades came fast and furious. Roth Capital basically said “hold my beer” and bumped their price target by $13 to $56 per share. That’s a 55% upside from current levels. Needham and Northland also jumped on the hype train with their own upgrades.
The result? Applied Digital is now up a absolutely bonkers 372% year-to-date. That’s the kind of return that makes you question all your life choices if you missed it.
The Bottom Line
Look, AI isn’t going anywhere, and these companies need somewhere to put their massive computing infrastructure. Applied Digital figured out how to be the real estate mogul in this equation, and it’s paying off big time. Whether this momentum continues depends on how quickly they can build out capacity and lock in more hyperscaler deals, but right now, they’re riding the AI wave like pros.
Just remember: past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, but sometimes a rocket ship is just a rocket ship.