Applied Digital raises $1.59B in new debt to expand its North Dakota AI data center campus

Applied Digital Corporation is going back to the debt markets for another massive raise. The company announced a proposed offering of $1.59 billion in senior secured notes due 2031, with proceeds earmarked for expanding its Polaris Forge 1 AI data center campus in Ellendale, North Dakota.

The notes will be issued through APLD ComputeCo 3 LLC, a subsidiary of Applied Digital. The money will fund construction of a new facility called ELN-04, which will add 150 megawatts of critical IT load capacity to the campus.

A year of aggressive capital raises

Back in March, the company closed a $2.15 billion senior secured notes offering to finance its Polaris Forge 2 campus in Harwood, North Dakota. That’s a separate facility entirely, meaning Applied Digital is now building out two major data center campuses simultaneously across the state.

Then on May 29, the company secured a $550 million revolving credit facility designed to boost liquidity for ongoing data center projects and working capital needs. Add it all up, and Applied Digital has tapped roughly $4.3 billion in debt financing in a span of about three months.

The ELN-04 facility will be the fourth building in the Polaris Forge 1 expansion sequence. Beyond construction, the $1.59 billion in proceeds will also go toward repaying an existing Goldman Sachs bridge loan, establishing debt service reserves, and covering transaction costs associated with the deal.

What this means for investors

The aggressive debt accumulation is a double-edged sword. Securing over $4 billion in financing within a single quarter signals that the market views the company’s assets and revenue prospects as creditworthy.

Senior secured notes sit at the top of the capital structure, meaning these debt holders get paid first if anything goes sideways. That’s great for bondholders, less great for equity investors who are subordinate in a liquidation scenario.

Applied Digital caters to AI, networking, and blockchain applications. The company’s recent financing announcements have focused on traditional capital markets rather than any crypto-native mechanisms. There are no token sales or blockchain-based fundraising structures in play here.

Applied Digital trades on NASDAQ under the ticker APLD and has been founded in 2021.