In just a few short years, Applied Digital has gone from concept to one of the fastest-growing infrastructure companies in the country. Built to meet the needs of rising compute workloads, the company has moved quickly—designing, building, and operating high-density data centers tailored for AI and high-performance computing.
The company’s latest milestone—two 15-year lease agreements with CoreWeave, the AI Hyperscaler™, for 250 MW of critical IT load at its Ellendale, North Dakota campus—marks another major step forward. Over the life of these agreements, Applied Digital expects to generate roughly $7 billion in revenue, an anchor deal that highlights the growing demand for facilities built specifically to support artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).
At Ellendale, Applied Digital will initially deliver 100 MW to support CoreWeave’s infrastructure by late 2025. A second 150 MW data center is already under construction and due online by mid-2026. In addition, CoreWeave holds an option to take on a third 150 MW building, now in the planning stages, with service expected in 2027. Altogether, these agreements pave the way for CoreWeave to tap into 400 MW of IT capacity and potentially scale further as Applied Digital expands the site toward a full gigawatt over time.
Ellendale sits near more than a gigawatt of wind and other renewable generation—so even as CoreWeave runs massive GPU clusters, the facility draws from a low-cost, carbon-light pool of electricity. At the same time, North Dakota’s cold winters help Applied Digital trim cooling costs: air temperatures frequently fall below freezing, enabling “free cooling” for parts of the year. Those two factors gave Applied Digital a chance to engineer a campus that keeps operating expenses down while meeting AI’s appetite for power.
CoreWeave’s leases will take advantage of Ellendale’s rapid deployment model. Rather than waiting months or years for equipment to arrive, Applied Digital sets up prefabricated infrastructure off-site, then ships modules to North Dakota for quick assembly. The first 100 MW building, for instance, will be ready for CoreWeave to load GPUs as soon as the shell is complete; all electrical and cooling hookups will already be tested and waiting. In a market where training a single AI model can burn through several megawatts at a time, shaving weeks off deployment can translate to millions in avoided opportunity costs.
By combining large-scale power capacity with a fast, modular build process—and a location that naturally trims energy use—Applied Digital has given CoreWeave a place to grow that reflects AI’s unique demands. Over the next five years, as models get bigger and compute needs jump again, Ellendale could serve as a template for other rural campuses looking to host AI and HPC workloads.
“We believe Ellendale is more than a development project — it’s a launchpad for the future of AI infrastructure,” said Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital. “We intend for this platform to put us in a strong position to support early demand while continuing to grow alongside our customers. Through these newly signed long-term leases with CoreWeave, we are taking a step forward in our strategic expansion into advanced compute infrastructure.”
Read the full announcement here, and learn more about Applied Digital’s Ellendale campus and its long-term plans at applieddigital.com.
