애플라이드 디지털(APLD) 주가가 신규 75억 달러 규모 하이퍼스케일러 임대 계약 소식에 장후 거래에서 급등했으며, 이에 개인 투자자들은 해당 기업의 밸류에이션을 동종 업계 경쟁사인 아이렌(IREN) 대비 유리하게 평가하고 있다.

Shares of Applied Digital Corp. (APLD) climbed more than 7% in after-hours trading on Wednesday following the company’s announcement that it has surpassed 1 gigawatt of contracted capacity for its AI-focused data centers. The Dallas-based designer, builder, and operator of next-generation high-performance data centers confirmed it signed a 15-year take-or-pay lease with the same U.S.-based, high investment-grade hyperscaler that previously committed to its Delta Forge 1 campus in April. The new agreement covers the fourth AI Factory campus, Polaris Forge 3, delivering 300 MW of critical IT load supported by approximately 430 MW of grid-connected utility power. The transaction is valued at roughly $7.5 billion in base-term contracted revenue and up to $18.2 billion if all renewal options are exercised.

The deal lifts Applied Digital’s total contracted lease revenue across four AI Factory campuses to $31 billion, or $73 billion when including all renewal options, with roughly 65% backed by investment-grade hyperscalers. Total contracted capacity now stands at 1,200 MW of critical IT load and approximately 1,670 MW of utility power. Initial operations at Polaris Forge 3, which spans more than 600 acres and utilizes the company’s proprietary waterless cooling technology, are scheduled to commence in August 2027.

This milestone underscores the company’s rapid pivot from its blockchain origins into the booming AI infrastructure market, where hyperscalers are actively securing large-scale, reliable capacity to support training and inference workloads. In early May, APLD completed the separation of its cloud business into an independent public company, ChronoScale, and closed a $300 million senior secured bridge facility to fund ongoing AI data center development.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around APLD stock shifted from ‘bearish’ to ‘bullish territory’ over the past 24 hours, while message volume increased from low to normal levels. One user opined that APLD should be worth more than its rival IREN, provided that they have “proved more.” Both companies are former Bitcoin-mining firms that have pivoted aggressively into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data-center infrastructure. While IREN carries a market capitalization of $18.84 billion, APLD currently holds a market cap of $11.29 billion. Another user expressed optimism for a major rally on Thursday.

APLD stock has gained 487% over the past 12 months.