Home / Directory / AI infrastructure / AI datacenter facilities / colo / Applied Digital
Applied Digital
Purpose-built AI Factory campuses for high-density compute, leased on long terms, plus a separate energized-space hosting business. Applied Digital signed a $5 billion, 15-year lease with a U.S. investment-grade hyperscaler at its Polaris Forge 2 campus in North Dakota in October 2025, and later reported more than 1 GW of contracted capacity.
Buyers that want a multi-year, high-density AI campus lease for critical IT load.
Teams that need a few racks next quarter in a metro interconnection facility.
Verdict
Applied Digital is a good fit for enterprises and AI cloud operators that need multi-year, high-density campus capacity rather than a small colo cage. Commercial terms are long take-or-pay leases, so this is a serious facilities commitment, not a retail rack. They are among the clearer campus options when live AI Factory halls and density are what you are buying.
Score Breakdown
How Applied Digital scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Applied Digital commercializes capacity through multi-year take-or-pay campus leases for high-density AI load. Dollars and density are negotiated per hall and term; there is no public retail rack card. As of September 2026.
The Field at a Glance
Where Applied Digital ranks among AI infrastructure vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Applied Digital is strongest for buyers that want a multi-year, high-density AI campus lease for critical IT load. It leads this peer set on Overall Score at 8.2. Relative typical engagement cost is among the lower options here.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-year AI campus lease | Strong | Applied Digital publishes this lease structure. |
| Hyperscale and neocloud take-or-pay | Strong | Executed leases name tenants or describe their credit grade. |
| Retail colo next quarter | Weak | The timeline is a campus build, so it does not fit a few racks. |
| Bitcoin hosting capacity | Mixed | Bitcoin hosting is a live business next to the AI halls. |
Review Excerpts
Excerpts from company materials and public coverage of Applied Digital, plus representative buyer views drawn from public information. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites were excluded.
“The campus was built for dense GPU racks, which saved us a redesign of the hall.”
Representative buyer view
“We are leasing space for a multi-year training cluster, and power density came first and interconnection second.”
Representative buyer view
“For a few racks in a metro building next quarter this is the wrong product, and a campus conversation costs weeks.”
Representative buyer view
“The campus timeline was clear, but partial-hall handoff dates were less clear.”
Representative buyer view
Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums, and product documentation.
Based on: Applied Digital’s lease announcement and Data Center Dynamics’ coverage of the lease
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Applied Digital for buyers comparing options in AI datacenter facilities / colo. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Applied Digital did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria fall under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for AI datacenter facilities / colo)
- High-density campus design
- Long-term lease capacity
- Live hall evidence
- Concentration of tenant mix
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the use-case matrix above.
Scope
Applied Digital is graded here as AI datacenter facilities / colo. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.