Why Applied Digital Stock Zoomed on Monday

Key Points

• Applied Digital will break ground on a new AI data center in September.

• The company plans to invest $3 billion in the new data center.

• Applied Digital isn't profitable and won't be for years.

• 10 stocks we like better than Applied Digital ›

Shares of Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD), which builds and operates data centers for artificial intelligence (AI), soared 16.1% through 11:55 a.m. ET Monday after announcing it will build -- you guessed it! -- a new data center, which will be called "Polaris Forge 2."

Image source: Applied Digital.

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Introducing Polaris Forge 2

Polaris Forge 2 is a $3 billion data center campus in North Dakota, designed to run 280 megawatts of power "to meet surging demand for compute power" for AI tasks. Applied Digital plans to break ground on the new campus in September, open for business in 2026, and reach full capacity early in 2027. It may be later expanded in size and capacity, if needed.

You might not expect an announcement (like "we're going to spend $3 billion") to drive a stock price up. But in this case, Applied gave plenty of supporting detail to explain why this news is good for its business. For one thing, the company says it already has "strong interest from multiple parties" to lease capacity at the data center, including at least one "U.S. based investment-grade hyperscaler."

For another, Applied says it has already secured power through Cass County Electric Cooperative to run the data center.

Is Applied Digital stock a buy?

In short, Applied Digital has all the pieces in place to put this data center to work immediately and continue growing its business. Revenue more than doubled last year and is up 1500% over the last two years.

Granted, the company's not profitable, and analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence say it won't become profitable before 2028. But if all you're looking for right now is tremendous revenue growth, Applied's got that in spades.

Should you invest $1,000 in Applied Digital right now?

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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.