# Applied Digital (APLD) Q4 FY2026: A $36B AI Data-Center Backlog vs $5B of Debt — Real Transformation or Priced for Perfection?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/charged-alpha-stock-encyclopedia-7819792/applied-digital-apld-q4-fy2026-a-36b-ai-data-center-backlog-vs-5b-of-debt-real-transformation-or-priced-for-perfection
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/charged-alpha-stock-encyclopedia-7819792/applied-digital-apld-q4-fy2026-a-36b-ai-data-center-backlog-vs-5b-of-debt-real-transformation-or-priced-for-perfection.md
Podcast: [Charged Alpha Stock Encyclopedia](https://stenobird.com/podcast/charged-alpha-stock-encyclopedia-7819792)
Published: 2026-07-28T01:44:13+00:00
Episode link: https://chargedalpha.podbean.com/e/applied-digital-apld-q4-fy2026-a-36b-ai-data-center-backlog-vs-5b-of-debt-%e2%80%94-real-transformation-or-priced-for-perfection/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/6cpw1hiq4ql2pjdk/audio_u.mp3
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Duration seconds: 851

## Resource

Applied Digital Corp. (APLD) Q4 FY2026 — Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) — a Dallas-based designer, builder, and operator of large-scale AI + HPC data centers — reported fiscal Q4 2026 (fiscal year ended May 31, 2026) after the close on July 27. This is a genuine transformation story: a company that was a crypto-mining host three years ago is now a hyperscale AI landlord with a contracted lease backlog of roughly $36 billion (up to $86B if all renewals are exercised) across ~1.4 gigawatts of critical IT load and five campuses. Q4 revenue from continuing operations was $258.7M, up 407% YoY, as the first Polaris Forge 1 AI data center came online. The GAAP net loss to common was $110.6M (-$0.39/share), but $116.8M of that was NON-CASH stock compensation (accelerated vesting tied to spinning off the cloud business into ChronoScale, Nasdaq: CHRN) — strip the one-timers and adjusted net income was actually POSITIVE at $12.9M (adj EPS $0.04), with adjusted EBITDA of $42.4M and net operating income of $39.9M. Full-year FY2026 revenue was $611.3M (+167%), adj EBITDA $107.2M, NOI $90.4M. The pivotal development: on top of CoreWeave, a brand-new HIGH-INVESTMENT-GRADE hyperscaler signed THREE separate 15-year take-or-pay leases (Delta Forge 1: 300MW/$7.5B; Polaris Forge 3: 300MW/$7.5B; Delta Forge 2: 210MW/$5.2B) worth ~$20B combined — a world-class credit choosing Applied Digital three times in a row, which materially de-risks the old single-tenant (CoreWeave) concern. The catch is the balance sheet and the build: total debt jumped from under $3B to over $5.1B in a single quarter (funded by $2.15B 6.75% + $1.59B 7.0% senior secured notes), against $1.6B cash and $1.7B equity, and the company must spend $10B+ MORE to build 1.4 GW, diluting shareholders along the way, with the big…

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