Why Applied Digital (APLD) Is Scaling Its AI Factory Backlog With a New Hyperscaler Lease

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) is one of the fastest-growing AI stocks to buy now.

The latest growth signal came on April 23, 2026, when Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) announced a 15-year lease with a new U.S.-based, high-investment-grade hyperscaler at its Delta Forge 1 AI Factory campus. The agreement covers 300 MW of critical IT load at the 430 MW campus and represents about $7.5 billion in contracted value, lifting the company’s total contracted lease revenue to more than $23 billion. More than 50% of that contracted revenue is now backed by investment-grade customers, giving the company better revenue visibility as it scales AI infrastructure capacity.

That contract builds on a strong quarterly growth print. On April 8, Applied Digital reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 revenue of $126.6 million, up 139% year over year. Management said roughly $71.0 million of the increase came from its HPC Hosting business, helped by its first HPC data center at Polaris Forge 1 being fully operational during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $44.1 million from $6.3 million a year earlier, though the company also reported a net loss of $100.9 million as it continues to scale.

Why Applied Digital (APLD) Is Scaling Its AI Factory Backlog With a New Hyperscaler Lease

Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) designs, builds, and operates high-performance data centers and colocation services for AI, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads.

While we acknowledge the risk and potential of APLD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than APLD and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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