Applied Digital posts $341.9 million quarter and targets up to 4GW by 2030

Applied Digital just reported a quarter that would make most growth investors reach for a second coffee. Revenue for fiscal Q1 2027 came in at $341.9 million, up 322% from $80.9 million a year earlier.

The company, which trades under the ticker APLD, released the results on October 7, 2026. The number that may matter more than revenue is the backlog: approximately $36 billion in contracted base-term revenue, with management now targeting an operating portfolio of 3.5 to 4 GW by the end of calendar 2030.

The quarter, by the numbers

Nearly all of the growth came from one place. High-performance computing hosting, the segment that houses AI workloads for large customers, generated $262.6 million of the quarter’s total.

The backlog is where things get large. The approximately $36 billion figure is tied to 1.41 GW of leased critical IT load spread across five data center campuses.

Critical IT load is the power actually available to run servers, not the total electricity a site pulls. Think of it as the usable floor space in a building, rather than the full square footage including hallways and stairwells.

Management also flagged that the contracted figure could rise to $86 billion if customers exercise their renewal options.

Applied Digital posted a GAAP net loss of $221 million for the quarter, or $0.76 per share.

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $64.4 million.

Building out the power pipeline

Applied Digital says it intends to deploy more than 600 MW over the next 12 months.

Some of that capacity is already live. Polaris Forge 1 reached 250 MW of live capacity as of October 1, 2026, and the company expects its North Dakota facility to hit 300 MW by the end of calendar 2026.

The headline project is a 1.2 GW natural gas facility in North Dakota. The company is also pursuing up to 1 GW of potential capacity in Finland, which would give it a footprint outside the US.

Management tied the 2030 target to long-term power purchase agreements and rising demand from hyperscalers.

What this means for investors and the AI build-out

The backlog of approximately $36 billion is tied to 1.41 GW of leased critical IT load. Contracted revenue tied to specific megawatts is a lot more concrete than a forecast built on hoped-for customer wins, though contracted revenue is not collected revenue. The $36 billion only becomes real cash as capacity comes online, which places a lot of weight on the 600 MW deployment target for the next 12 months.

The $86 billion renewal scenario depends on customers choosing to stay, a decision that will hinge on how AI demand and pricing look years from now.

The milestones to track in the near term are fairly clear. Watch whether the North Dakota site reaches 300 MW by the end of calendar 2026, whether the 600 MW deployment pace holds, and whether the gap between adjusted EBITDA and GAAP results begins to narrow over the coming quarters.