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Biotech catalyst, news and analysis PDUFA tracker

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Applied Digital scheduled fiscal Q1 2027 results for October 7, after the U.S. close, with a 5 p.m. ET / 23:00 CEST conference call. The quarter ended August 31, 2026. The dated release is the next checkpoint for rental revenue, energised capacity, capital spending and financing. The September 25 resale-registration disclosure and November 4 annual meeting remain separate capital-structure and governance events.
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The September 28 notice covers the quarter ended August 31. It announces the earnings release and call, not an exact Form 10-Q filing time. Focus on rented and energised capacity versus contracted MW, cash capex, liquidity, debt and preferred-equity claims. Source
Capital expenditure of $3,042,156 thousand in the year to May 31, 2026 against revenue of $611,311 thousand, funded by $6,876,826 thousand of financing. The balance sheet carries $4,959,516 thousand of long-term debt, finance leases, preferred series paying $6,259 thousand of dividends and $1,956,303 thousand of redeemable noncontrolling interest, all ranking ahead of the common stock, and common shares outstanding rose from 224,909,669 to 287,883,603. The GAAP operating loss was $236,462 thousand while adjusted EBITDA was positive $107,229 thousand, and $2,381,027 thousand of the cash on the balance sheet is restricted and committed to construction.
All figures on this page come from the Form 10-K filed on July 29, 2026 for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026, in thousands of dollars, and from the results release furnished the same day as Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K of July 27, 2026. Applied Digital closes its fiscal year on May 31, so there is no more recent quarterly filing than that annual report: the figures are audited and they are the latest the company has published. The reference price of $24.53 is the close of September 28, 2026 from the project’s market-data provider, and the market value of about $7.15 billion is a Merlintrader calculation from that close and the 291,469,112 shares outstanding the company reports on the cover of the same annual report at July 28, 2026, against the 287,883,603 on the balance sheet at May 31, 2026. The contracted load of 1,410 MW and the contracted revenue of about $36.2 billion are the company’s own figures over the initial fifteen-year base lease terms; they are gross contract values, not present values and not cash. Adjusted revenue and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures defined in the filing, and adjusted revenue excludes ChronoScale. Provider fields for ownership, short interest and analyst aggregates are dated snapshots and are not company figures.
The demand is not a pipeline, it is signed paper. At May 31, 2026 the company had executed long-term leases representing approximately 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses, worth about $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over their initial fifteen-year base terms, and each lease is a direct agreement with CoreWeave or an investment-grade hyperscaler, on a take-or-pay basis and non-cancellable, so that a termination for convenience would require payment of the full remaining contractual value. The first campus, Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota, is running: the first data centre, about 100 MW of critical IT load, became operational in October 2025, a second of about 150 MW is partially operational, and a third of about 150 MW is under construction for service in calendar 2027. Revenue followed: $611.3 million for the year against $228.6 million, of which $114.7 million was data centre rental – the first full year in which that line existed – and adjusted EBITDA was $107.2 million against $19.6 million. The company raised the money to build rather than waiting for it: financing provided $6.88 billion in the year and unrestricted cash ended at $1.59 billion.
The costs are arriving before the rent does, and the accounting is honest about it. The year produced a GAAP operating loss of $236.5 million on revenue of $611.3 million, a net loss of $184.3 million and a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $250.3 million, and the gap between that and $107.2 million of adjusted EBITDA is the depreciation and interest on assets that are built and not yet earning. Capital expenditure was $3.04 billion, more than five times revenue, and investing used $2.94 billion against $89.7 million provided by operations. The balance sheet carries $4.96 billion of long-term debt plus finance leases, $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest and a restricted cash balance of $2.38 billion that is committed to construction rather than available to spend. The share count went from 224.9 million outstanding to 287.9 million in a year. The leases are signed and the customers are strong; what remains is whether the build is financed on terms that leave anything for the common shareholder.
The Form 10-K filed on July 29, 2026 carries the audited accounts for the year ended May 31, 2026, in thousands of dollars. Revenue of $611,311 against $228,569, made of services revenue of $496,609 against $226,643 and data centre rental and other revenue of $114,702 against nil, with related party revenue falling to nil from $1,926. Total costs and expenses were $847,773 against $300,744, including services cost of revenue of $396,858 and selling, general and administrative expenses of $332,096, for an operating loss of $236,462 against $72,175. Interest expense net of $29,516 was more than offset by a $75,818 gain on the change in fair value of derivatives and a $10,840 gain on investments, and the net loss was $184,339, with $250,263 attributable to common stockholders after $59,665 of losses attributed to noncontrolling interests and $6,259 of preferred dividends. EBITDA was negative $65,540 and adjusted EBITDA positive $107,229. The balance sheet at May 31, 2026 shows cash and cash equivalents of $1,591,988, restricted cash of $2,381,027, property and equipment net of $4,236,300, total assets of $9,929,312, current portion of debt of $16,422, long-term debt of $4,959,516, total liabilities of $6,185,735 and redeemable noncontrolling interest of $1,956,303. The cash flow statement shows $89,685 provided by operating activities, $2,936,397 used in investing and $6,876,826 provided by financing.
Applied Digital builds data centres for artificial intelligence and rents them under long leases to CoreWeave and to investment-grade hyperscalers. That is the whole of the business now: the legacy blockchain hosting is small, and the company is a landlord with a construction programme. The year to May 31, 2026 was the first in which the new model produced a full year of rent, and the numbers show both halves of it. Revenue reached $611.3 million and adjusted EBITDA $107.2 million, while the GAAP operating loss was $236.5 million because depreciation and interest on buildings that are not yet fully leased run ahead of the income they produce. Signed leases cover 1,410 MW of critical IT load and about $36.2 billion of base-term revenue, which is the best evidence a data centre developer can offer; the question a reader has to answer is whether the equity left after $4.98 billion of debt and a growing share count is worth the contracted rent.
Applied Digital scheduled fiscal Q1 2027 results for October 7, after the U.S. close, with a 5 p.m. ET / 23:00 CEST conference call. The quarter ended August 31, 2026. The dated release is the next checkpoint for rental revenue, energised capacity, capital spending and financing. The September 25 resale-registration disclosure and November 4 annual meeting remain separate capital-structure and governance events.
The resale prospectus covers 53,087,689 common shares: 50,087,689 Series G conversion shares, comprising 25,528,866 remaining plus 24,558,823 newly registered, and 3,000,000 warrant shares. Under the original registration 49,696,777 Series G-related common shares had already been sold. These are registration and availability figures, not an assertion that all remaining shares are outstanding or sold. APLD receives no proceeds from selling-stockholder resales. The separate proxy sets the annual meeting for November 4 at noon ET; it reports 299,094,373 common shares at the September 8 record date. Primary source
Earlier context (May 31, 2026, year end): The contracted lease portfolio, and what it is worth
At May 31, 2026 the company had executed long-term leases with CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers representing approximately 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses and about $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over the initial fifteen-year base lease terms. The filing states that each lease is take-or-pay and non-cancellable and that a termination for convenience would require payment of the full remaining contractual value.
Revenue of $611.3 million, adjusted EBITDA of $107.2 million, an operating loss of $236.5 million and a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $250.3 million for the year to May 31, 2026, with capital expenditure of $3.04 billion and $1.59 billion of unrestricted cash at the year end. Data centre rental revenue of $114.7 million was the first full year of that line, made of $99.8 million of base rent and $14.9 million of tenant recoveries.
The company entered an approximately fifteen-year lease, with three five-year renewal options, with a high investment-grade hyperscaler at its Delta Forge 2 campus in its southern region, covering the full 210 MW of critical IT load in a single building under construction. The filing values it at approximately $5.2 billion of contracted revenue over the base term, with expected delivery in the first half of calendar 2028. It is the largest single agreement the filing names.
The first data centre at the Ellendale, North Dakota campus, with approximately 100 MW of critical IT load, became operational in October 2025. A second of about 150 MW is partially operational and a third of about 150 MW is under construction with an anticipated ready-for-service date in calendar 2027.
At the historical September 14 checkpoint, the latest filing reviewed was a Form 4 dated September 14, 2026, one of a series through August. These are disclosures of transactions by officers and directors; they change nothing in the contracts, the lease value or the accounts, and a Form 144 is a notice of a proposed sale rather than evidence that one happened.
Financing activities provided $6.88 billion in the year against $2.94 billion used in investing and $89.7 million provided by operations. The equity issued in the year took the share count from 224,909,669 outstanding to 287,883,603, and the balance sheet carries $4.96 billion of long-term debt, $58.3 million of finance leases and $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest.
Three scenarios follow from the same set of facts. The constructive path requires the buildings to be leased as they are finished. On that path the campuses under construction reach service on schedule, the contracted 1,410 MW is delivered and starts producing rent, the depreciation that is currently charged against almost no revenue is matched by income, and the GAAP operating line crosses from a loss of $236.5 million towards break-even while adjusted EBITDA grows from $107.2 million. The company’s own evidence for this path is the shape of the leases: take-or-pay, non-cancellable, with counterparties the filing describes as CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers, and about $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over the initial fifteen-year base terms. What would confirm it: a campus reaching ready-for-service on time, rent beginning on schedule, and capital expenditure falling as a share of revenue.
The middle path is the one the current accounts describe. The build continues on roughly the present schedule, each new data centre arrives a little later and costs a little more than planned, the leases convert into rent as the space is handed over, and the gap between adjusted EBITDA and the GAAP result narrows because depreciation is spread over more revenue rather than because anything else changes. Funding continues to come from the capital markets, which means the share count and the debt keep growing, and the equity story becomes one of scale rather than of per-share value. What would falsify it: a quarter in which revenue grows without capital expenditure falling, or a lease that does not start on time without an explanation.
The adverse path is a financing or construction problem rather than a demand problem. Demand is contracted; what can go wrong is that the money to finish the buildings is raised on terms that consume the equity, that a ready-for-service date slips far enough to push the rent out, or that a counterparty’s own circumstances change the value of a lease that is legally non-cancellable. On that path the company can hold $36.2 billion of contracted revenue and still leave little for a common shareholder, because the claims ahead of the common stock – $4.96 billion of long-term debt, finance leases, preferred dividends and $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest – are paid first. Each of these is a risk the filing itself names; none is a forecast, and they carry no probabilities.
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The question this page exists to answer is not whether there is demand for AI data centre capacity – the contracts answer that – but whether the company can build the buildings, on the terms it has signed, without the financing consuming the equity. Everything that follows is evidence for one side or the other of that question.
Two numbers frame it. The first is 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses, with about $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over the initial fifteen-year base terms. The second is a balance sheet carrying $4.96 billion of long-term debt plus finance leases, $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest and preferred series that pay dividends, against $1.59 billion of unrestricted cash and $2.38 billion of restricted cash that belongs to the construction programme. A landlord with signed leases is a good business; the question is the capital structure underneath this particular landlord.
Applied Digital designs, builds and operates data centres for artificial intelligence and other accelerated computing, and rents the capacity under long-term leases. The filing describes a standardised, repeatable design that has been qualified by major hyperscalers, covering site selection, design, construction and operations, and engineered for liquid-cooled, high-density GPU deployments with redundant electrical and mechanical systems.
The company reports two businesses in transition. The HPC hosting business is the new one: purpose-built campuses leased to CoreWeave and to investment-grade hyperscalers on take-or-pay terms. The legacy data centre hosting business is blockchain hosting, which is smaller and shrinking in relevance. There is also ChronoScale, a cloud service that the company excludes from its adjusted revenue because it is not part of the leasing model – $71.6 million of revenue in fiscal 2026, which the adjusted revenue figure of $539.7 million takes out. Reading this company means reading the leasing business and treating the rest as noise to be separated out.
The campuses are the asset. Polaris Forge 1, in Ellendale, North Dakota, is the flagship and the only one producing rent: its first data centre, with approximately 100 MW of critical IT load, became operational in October 2025; a second of about 150 MW is partially operational; and a third of about 150 MW is under construction with an anticipated ready-for-service date in calendar 2027. One date is worth flagging because the filing gives two: the description of the campus says the first data centre became operational in October 2025, while the lease note says the 100 MW building was completed and became operational in November 2025, and the lease note puts the third building’s service in calendar 2026 where the campus description says calendar 2027. This page uses the campus description and records that the filing contradicts itself. The remaining campuses are at earlier stages, and the lease portfolio of 1,410 MW is spread across five in total.
The distinction that matters in the accounts is between capacity that is built and being paid for and capacity that is contracted and not yet built. Only the first produces rent; the second produces capital expenditure, depreciation once the assets are in service, and interest from the day the money is drawn. That is why a company with $36.2 billion of contracted revenue can report a $236.5 million operating loss, and why the schedule of ready-for-service dates is the most important thing to watch in the next filings.
Three different quantities are used in this sector as if they were one, and the filing keeps them apart. Contracted load is what the leases cover: approximately 1,410 MW across five campuses at May 31, 2026. Constructed or live capacity is what has been built and can be occupied: on the company’s own description, the first Polaris Forge 1 data centre of about 100 MW operational from October 2025, a second partially operational, and a third under construction. And revenue is what the tenants are actually paying for, which in fiscal 2026 was $114.7 million of data centre rental.
The gap between the first and the third is the investment thesis and the risk in one line. Contracted revenue is a promise that is worth something only when the building exists, and until then it is a construction obligation with a financing cost attached. When reading an announcement from this company, the useful question is which of the three it is describing.
The contracted revenue figure is about $36.2 billion, and the filing is specific about how it should be understood: it is the contracted revenue over the initial fifteen-year base lease terms, on leases the company describes as direct agreements with CoreWeave or an investment-grade hyperscaler, structured on a take-or-pay basis and non-cancellable, such that a termination for convenience would require payment of the full remaining contractual value.
Two cautions belong beside a number that large. It is a gross figure over fifteen years, not a present value and not a cash balance, and the company will spend several billion dollars of capital before it collects it. And it is concentrated in a small number of counterparties whose own credit is therefore part of this company’s credit: a lease that cannot be cancelled is worth what the tenant can pay. The filing also names one agreement separately: the Delta Forge 2 lease of June 5, 2026 with a high investment-grade hyperscaler, covering the full 210 MW of critical IT load for approximately $5.2 billion of contracted revenue over the base term, with delivery expected in the first half of calendar 2028.
Revenue of $611.3 million in fiscal 2026 came from three places, and only one of them is the business the equity story is about. Services revenue was $496.6 million, of which ChronoScale, the cloud service the company excludes from its adjusted figures, contributed $71.6 million. Data centre rental and other revenue was $114.7 million, the first full year of that line, made of $99.8 million of base rent and $14.9 million of tenant recoveries. Related party revenue, which had been $1.9 million, fell to nothing after certain related parties terminated their contracts in the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2025.
So the leasing business produced about $100 million of base rent in its first full year against a contracted portfolio that will eventually cover 1,410 MW. The adjusted revenue figure the company leads with, $539.7 million, excludes ChronoScale and is the cleaner measure of the operating base; the difference between it and the GAAP revenue line is the part of the business that is on its way out.
Revenue for the year to May 31, 2026, by line of business, in thousands of dollars.
September 29, 2026 update. The October 7 results will update the financial baseline beyond the May 31 audited accounts. Until the release is available, the FY2026 revenue, EBITDA, operating loss and debt below retain their original period. The scheduling notice contains no new quarterly results or guidance. Company source
The financials of the year to May 31, 2026 produced revenue of $611.3 million against $228.6 million, total costs and expenses of $847.8 million against $300.7 million, and an operating loss of $236.5 million against $72.2 million. Interest expense net of $29.5 million was more than offset by a $75.8 million gain on the change in fair value of derivatives and a $10.8 million gain on investments, so the pre-tax loss was smaller than the operating loss; the net loss was $184.3 million, and after $59.7 million attributed to noncontrolling interests and $6.3 million of preferred dividends, the loss attributable to common stockholders was $250.3 million.
The non-GAAP measures tell the same year differently. EBITDA was negative $65.5 million and adjusted EBITDA positive $107.2 million, which is 18% of adjusted revenue against 9% a year earlier. The company also reports net operating income of $90.4 million at a 91% margin on the HPC hosting business. The distance between the GAAP operating loss and the adjusted EBITDA is depreciation of assets in service, stock compensation and the purchase accounting of the transition; a reader should treat both ends of it as real.
The year to May 31, 2026 against the year to May 31, 2025, in millions of dollars.
September 29, 2026 update. The key reconciliation is capital expenditure and construction funding against rental revenue and unrestricted liquidity. Contracted MW and multi-year lease value do not equal energised, billable capacity or cash already received. Debt and preferred financing should be read alongside the common shareholder’s residual claim. Company source
Operating activities provided $89.7 million in the year, against $115.4 million used a year earlier, and investing used $2,936.4 million, of which capital expenditure was $3,042.2 million – $2,988.7 million of it in the HPC hosting business. Financing provided $6,876.8 million, and cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash together rose by $4,030.1 million to $3,973.0 million.
The composition of that cash matters more than the total. Unrestricted cash was $1,592.0 million and restricted cash was $2,381.0 million on the balance sheet, and restricted cash in a construction business is money committed to lenders, landlords or contractors rather than money the company can spend at its discretion. One discrepancy in the filing is worth recording rather than resolving: the balance sheet states restricted cash of $2,381.0 million, while the management discussion describes $2.6 billion, and this page uses the balance sheet figure and says so. Capital expenditure larger than revenue, funded from the capital markets, is the correct summary of the year: the build is being paid for before the rent arrives, which is exactly the trade the leases justify if the schedule holds.
The balance sheet at May 31, 2026 carries $16.4 million of debt due within a year and $4,959.5 million of long-term debt, plus finance lease liabilities of $47.6 million current and $10.7 million non-current. Beneath that sit the instruments that financed the transition, including convertible notes and a prepaid forward transaction, and the facilities signed during the year, such as a $65 million revolving credit facility with the First National Bank of Omaha at SOFR plus 2.75% and a $50 million promissory note with an initial draw at 8.0% per annum before any additional loans.
The large instruments are the ones to name: $2,350.0 million of 2030 senior secured notes at 9.25% maturing in December 2030, $2,150.0 million of 2031 senior secured notes at 6.75% maturing in March 2031, $450.0 million of 2.75% senior unsecured convertible notes maturing in June 2030, and a $300.0 million bridge facility maturing in April 2027; the $65 million revolver and the $50 million promissory note are the small ones, and the filing records that the promissory note was repaid in full on November 28, 2025. The debt note also carries the commitments a reader should add to the debt itself: scheduled principal and estimated interest payments, power commitments of $19.2 million, and $37.2 million of future preferred share dividends, of which $6.3 million was paid during the year. Interest expense of $29.5 million in fiscal 2026 was only partly shielded by the derivative gains that will not repeat with the same sign, and the filing’s own risk language notes that conversion of the convertible notes would dilute existing holders and that the prepaid forward and capped calls can move the shares. None of that is unusual for a company building before it earns; all of it is what stands ahead of the common stock.
September 25 capital update: the resale registration covers 53,087,689 shares, including 24,558,823 newly registered Series G conversion shares; 50,087,689 are conversion shares and 3,000,000 warrant shares. Registration, potential issuance and resale are different stages. Selling-holder resales do not produce cash for APLD. The definitive proxy reports 299,094,373 common shares at September 8, 2026; historical financial figures below retain their own dates. Primary source Definitive proxy
Dilution is the arithmetic of this build. Common shares outstanding went from 224,909,669 at May 31, 2025 to 287,883,603 at May 31, 2026, an increase of 28%, with 295,048,903 shares issued and 7,165,300 held in treasury. The company is authorised to issue 600,000,000 shares. Preferred series – E and E-1 – sit in temporary equity rather than in the common count, and the redeemable noncontrolling interest of $1,956.3 million represents claims on subsidiaries that are neither debt nor common equity but rank ahead of it.
The largest single cause of the increase is not an offering but a conversion: during the year 913,800 shares of the Series G preferred stock were converted into approximately 51.0 million shares of common stock, and no Series G shares were outstanding at May 31, 2026. That is about three quarters of the 63.0 million increase in shares outstanding, and it is the mechanism a reader should understand before treating the rest of the year’s issuance as discretionary. The leases do not specify how many shares will ultimately be outstanding when the rent arrives, and every financing decision between now and then moves that number.
The filing describes the lease counterparties as CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers, and says each lease is a direct long-term agreement rather than a sublease or a brokered arrangement. It also names one agreement separately, signed on June 5, 2026 at the Delta Forge 2 campus and covering 210 MW, for approximately $5.2 billion of contracted revenue over the base term, with delivery expected in the first half of calendar 2028.
The concentration that follows is the point. A landlord with a handful of very large tenants has a business whose value depends on those tenants’ ability and willingness to pay for fifteen years, and the filing’s risk language names dependence on principal customers explicitly. The mitigant is the structure: take-or-pay and non-cancellable, so the obligation survives even if the tenant’s own plans change. That is a strong contract and it is not the same thing as a guarantee, which is why the counterparty names matter as much as the contracted value.
ChronoScale is the company’s cloud service, and it is the reason the company publishes an adjusted revenue figure at all: revenue of $71.6 million in fiscal 2026 against $84.4 million a year earlier, excluded from adjusted revenue of $539.7 million so that the same measure shows $144.2 million for fiscal 2025.
Two things follow from that. The first is that the segment is shrinking – by 15% – while the leasing business grows, so the mix is moving the right way on its own. The second is that the revenue line and the adjusted revenue line should not be compared across periods without the same exclusion applied, which is what the reconciliation in the filing is for. The management discussion treats ChronoScale as a legacy activity outside the leasing model, and the page does the same: it is real revenue, it is not the story, and the numbers above separate it.
The legacy Data Center Hosting Business is blockchain hosting, and the filing is candid that it has withered: its capital expenditure line in fiscal 2026 was negative $1.2 million against $9.3 million of spending a year earlier, reflecting the exit rather than the growth of that activity. The company still names blockchain hosting providers among its competitors, which is a statement about where the business came from rather than where it is.
What matters for a reader is that the transition is nearly complete and that the numbers should be read as if it were. Where once the company’s revenue was hosting fees from miners, in fiscal 2026 the useful measures are the HPC leasing revenue of $114.7 million and the contracted portfolio of 1,410 MW. The remaining hosting activity is small enough that it appears in the accounts mainly as an explanation for discontinued and held-for-sale lines.
The moat claim in the filing rests on three things: long-term contracted revenue with high-quality counterparties, a standardised repeatable design that hyperscalers have qualified, and the ability to develop sites where power is available. The first is visible in the numbers – 1,410 MW and $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over fifteen-year base terms. The second is what turns a data centre into a product rather than a project. The third is the constraint that binds the industry: the company’s own risk language names power supply disruptions among its risks, and its campuses are in places chosen partly for power.
The honest counterweight is that this is not a business with a technological moat. It buys land and power, builds a shell and cooling, and leases the result. Its defence is the contract term and the scarcity of suitable sites, not a patent. That is enough in a market where hyperscalers are signing long leases to secure capacity, and it is not enough if the market loosens.
The peers this filing names are also its competitors: among data centre providers, companies building AI infrastructure such as CoreWeave, Fermi and Keel Infrastructure; and in the legacy hosting business, other blockchain hosting providers. That is an unusual competitor list, because one of the names is also a tenant – CoreWeave leases capacity from Applied Digital while competing with it for the same customers and capital.
The industry framing the filing gives is a demand statement: hyperscaler capital expenditure on AI infrastructure estimated to exceed $700 billion annually by 2026, United States data centre construction spending tripled since 2022 and on track to surpass general office construction, and industry projections that global demand could triple by 2030. Those are sector figures from third parties and they are context, not this company’s revenue. What distinguishes Applied Digital from the other developers is that it builds and leases rather than sells compute, which means its upside is the spread between the cost of the building and the rent, and its downside is leverage on that spread.
The company is led by its founder, and the filing’s governance disclosures describe a board and executive team managing a company that has changed shape twice in three years: from bitcoin hosting to HPC hosting, and from a small balance sheet to a $9.9 billion one. The equity raised during fiscal 2026 – financing of $6.88 billion against $2.94 billion invested – was the central act of management’s year, and the convertible notes, prepaid forward and capped calls the filing describes are its instruments.
Two governance facts a reader can see from the accounts: the company has preferred series in temporary equity paying dividends of $6.3 million in the year, and a redeemable noncontrolling interest of $1.96 billion created by bringing investors into subsidiaries. Both are forms of capital that sit ahead of the common stock, and both were chosen by management rather than imposed. Insider activity in the window is a series of Forms 4, which disclose transactions and change nothing about the contracts or the accounts.
September 29, 2026 update. Add October 7 after the close for the FYQ1 2027 release, with the 5 p.m. ET call. The November 4 shareholder meeting is a separate confirmed event. Construction milestones and customer commissioning retain their own disclosed windows; the earnings date is not their completion date. Company source
Three horizons follow from the numbers. In the next twelve months the question is capital expenditure: whether the $3.04 billion spent in fiscal 2026 falls as a share of revenue, and whether the third Polaris Forge 1 data centre reaches service in calendar 2027 as anticipated. In the following two years the question is the rent: whether the $114.7 million of data centre rental revenue grows into the contracted base and whether depreciation, which is already charged against a large asset base, is matched by income.
Beyond that the question is the capital structure. At some point a landlord funded with convertible notes, preferred series and noncontrolling interests has to show that the common shareholder receives something after everyone else is paid. That is not a date in a filing; it is the point at which the adjusted EBITDA the company reports is converted into GAAP profit and cash, and it is the thing to look for in each annual report rather than in each announcement.
The market value here is a calculation and the page states its inputs: 291,469,112 shares outstanding at July 28, 2026, the most recent count the company reports, against the 287,883,603 on the balance sheet at May 31, 2026, multiplied by the close of September 28, 2026. It is a small number of shares to build $36.2 billion of contracted revenue with, and that is the whole of the bull case in one sentence; it is also a count that rose 28% in a year and will rise again if the build continues to be financed with equity.
The measures to compare are not multiples of a loss. The company reports adjusted EBITDA of $107.2 million for fiscal 2026, net operating income of $90.4 million on the HPC business at a 91% margin, and a GAAP operating loss of $236.5 million. An enterprise value has to add back the $4.98 billion of debt and the $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest before it can be compared with anything. The honest position is that this is a valuation on contracted future rent and on the cost of the capital raised to reach it, and that no single multiple describes either.
Five red flags to keep on the list. First, capital expenditure larger than revenue – $3.04 billion against $611.3 million – funded from the capital markets, which makes the company’s cost of capital the main variable in the equity story. Second, a share count rising 28% in a year and a balance sheet that also carries preferred dividends and $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest, all of which rank ahead of the common stock.
Third, customer concentration: the leases are with CoreWeave and a small number of investment-grade hyperscalers, and a non-cancellable lease is worth what the tenant can pay. Fourth, the operating loss and the adjusted EBITDA measure tell different stories about the same year, and the company’s guidance and public language follow the adjusted one. Fifth, $2.38 billion of the cash on the balance sheet is restricted and committed to construction rather than available, so the unrestricted $1.59 billion is the number that matters for flexibility. Each of these is disclosed in the filing rather than inferred, and none of them is a prediction.
September 29, 2026 update. For October 7, compare live and contracted capacity, rental revenue conversion, capex paid, available cash, debt terms and preferred or common issuance. Registration of resale shares remains permission for potential resale, not evidence that every registered share has been issued or sold. Company source
The annual meeting is set for November 4, 2026 at noon ET (18:00 Europe/Rome), with a September 8 record date. This is a confirmed governance event, not a new financing approval or an earnings date. SEC definitive proxy
A checklist of five items for the next annual report, in the order they appear in the accounts. First, capital expenditure and its split between the HPC business and everything else, compared with revenue: the question is whether the ratio is falling. Second, data centre rental revenue and its split between base rent and tenant recoveries, against the contracted 1,410 MW, which shows how much of the portfolio has started paying.
Third, the debt note in full – new instruments, their coupons and conversion terms, the maturity schedule and the preferred dividends – because that is where the cost of the build appears. Fourth, the share count, the redeemable noncontrolling interest and any new series of preferred, because those are the claims ahead of the common stock. Fifth, the ready-for-service dates of the campuses under construction, compared with what the previous year’s filing said, and whether the company reports against its own schedule. Each of the five is a number in the same document every year, so the comparison needs nothing new from the company.
September 29, 2026 update. The new fact is a confirmed reporting date. The economic test is unchanged: how quickly funded construction becomes billable capacity and what remains for common equity after financing claims. No fiscal Q1 2027 results should be inferred from the scheduling notice. Company source
The bottom line is that Applied Digital has done the hard part of a data centre business, which is signing the leases: 1,410 MW of contracted critical IT load across five campuses, about $36.2 billion of contracted revenue over fifteen-year base terms, with take-or-pay and non-cancellable structures and counterparties described as CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. It has also done the expensive part, which is starting to build: $3.04 billion of capital expenditure in a year in which revenue was $611.3 million, funded by $6.88 billion of financing, leaving $4.96 billion of long-term debt, $1.96 billion of redeemable noncontrolling interest and a share count 28% higher.
The year’s accounts show both halves without flattering either. Adjusted EBITDA of $107.2 million against a GAAP operating loss of $236.5 million is what a portfolio of half-finished buildings looks like, and the $114.7 million of rent collected in the first full year of the leasing business is what the other half looks like. Both are facts from the same filing.
The next annual report is where the question resolves, because it will show whether capital expenditure fell while rent grew. Until then the page’s own test is the one to hold: the leases are signed, the financing has been raised, and what remains is whether the buildings, the schedule and the capital structure leave anything for the common shareholder.
The historical filing check after the May 31 annual accounts recorded insider Forms 4 and a July 31 Schedule 13G/A. That limited inventory is superseded by the September 25 resale and proxy disclosures discussed above. Fiscal Q1 2027 ended August 31; its results are scheduled for October 7, with no exact Form 10-Q filing time specified in the scheduling notice.
On the market side, the fields a data provider supplies – ownership, short interest, analyst aggregates – are dated snapshots rather than company figures, and none is reproduced here as a current position. What the page tracks instead is the operating series the company discloses: contracted load, live capacity, rent collected and capital expenditure. Those four numbers, taken from the filing and compared with the previous year’s filing, describe this company better than any price series.
Source: every company figure quoted comes from the filings and the release listed above, each with the date it was published. The lease portfolio, the campus descriptions, the debt instruments and the non-GAAP reconciliations are as stated in the Form 10-K; the results release states the same figures for the quarter and the year. Where the page uses a gross contract value it says so, and where a balance is restricted it says so. Insider filings are described as what they are – notices of transactions and proposed transactions – and nothing on this page is derived from them. Market and ownership fields that come from a third-party provider are dated readings, not company figures, and are not reproduced as current positions. Sections that restate an earlier position carry the date of that position.
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Disclaimer. This content is published by Merlintrader for educational and informational purposes only. It is independent journalism and research. It does not constitute investment advice, an investment recommendation, an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell any security, and it is not a research report within the meaning of applicable United States securities regulation. Nothing here should be read as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold $APLD or any other security.
Figures are taken from public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, company releases and clearly identified market-data providers, and are stated with their reference dates. Data can change without notice. Forward delivery windows, lease values including renewal options, pipeline capacity and tenant credit descriptions are management statements and may not be achieved. Readers should verify every figure against the primary source before acting.
AI infrastructure and data-center development are capital-intensive and carry substantial risk. Construction delays, cost overruns, utility and interconnection problems, tenant defaults, lease termination, refinancing, high-yield debt, preferred capital, convertible instruments and warrant or equity issuance can materially reduce or eliminate the value available to common shareholders. Contracted value is not revenue already earned, cash or profit. Loss of principal is possible.
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