Applied Digital reports a $36 billion contracted revenue backlog, reflecting locked-in customer commitments across its AI compute platform.

Applied Digital holds a substantial foundation for long-term growth from its $36 billion contracted revenue base, provided it can convert contracted capacity into operating assets and recurring revenues. As of August 31, 2026, APLD had approximately 1.41 GW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses, representing $36 billion of contracted revenues over initial base terms. The portfolio is backed by CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers, with leases generally structured for 15 years on a take-or-pay basis.

The company is beginning to demonstrate this conversion capability. Polaris Forge 1 reached 250 MW of operational capacity on October 1, while APLD expects to place more than 600 MW into service over the next 12 months. First-quarter fiscal 2027 revenues surged 322 percent year over year to $341.9 million, while HPC Hosting generated $262.6 million, including $65.8 million of base rent.

Investors should not, however, equate the contracted backlog with immediately realized revenues. Much of the contracted capacity remains under construction. At quarter-end, APLD carried $6.4 billion of debt against $3.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. Customer concentration and construction and financing requirements remain important risks to monitor.

Overall, APLD's $36 billion contracted revenue base can support long-term growth, but sustained expansion depends on successfully financing, completing, and bringing contracted AI capacity online while increasing recurring base-rent revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate projects fiscal 2027 and 2028 revenue growth of 49.67 percent and 107.93 percent, respectively, underscoring the potential for APLD's expanding AI infrastructure portfolio to translate its contracted revenue base into substantial top-line growth.

Core Scientific and TeraWulf are narrowing APLD's competitive lead. Core Scientific reports more than $24 billion in contracted revenues and about 1.1 GW of contracted capacity, recently adding an AMD agreement representing over $14 billion of base contracted revenues across 15 years. TeraWulf reports roughly $27 billion of contracted revenues and 839 MW of leased capacity, including a 401-MW Anthropic lease contributing approximately $19 billion over 20 years. Both competitors present credible paths to challenge APLD's contracted-revenue growth narrative.

From a valuation standpoint, APLD trades at a trailing twelve-month price-to-book ratio of 4.02, higher than the Finance–Miscellaneous Services industry average of 2.96. Shares have lost 2.9 percent year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Finance sector's 4.2 percent rise. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Applied Digital's fiscal 2027 bottom line projects a loss of $1.09 per share, wider than the 91-cent loss recorded a year ago. APLD currently carries a Zacks Rank of 5 (Strong Sell).