What Happened?
Shares of digital infrastructure provider Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) jumped 4.8% in the afternoon session after investor optimism grew on the back of its strong growth pipeline, a substantial order backlog, and increasing demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The company's stock climbed as analysts took note of its visible growth and robust customer interest. Fueling the positive sentiment was Applied Digital's reported order backlog of roughly $16 billion. This included two lease agreements with AI cloud company CoreWeave, expected to generate a combined $11 billion, and a 15-year, $5 billion agreement with another U.S. high-performance computing provider. This strong demand was reflected in the company's fiscal second-quarter results, where revenue surged 250% year over year to $126.6 million. The broader market environment also provided a lift, as technology and chipmaker stocks rallied amid growing investor confidence in AI as a long-term growth driver.
The shares closed the day at $37.44, up 6.3% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Applied Digital’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 90 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock gained 12.9% on the news that the stock's positive momentum continued as it reported impressive second-quarter growth metrics that significantly beat Wall Street expectations.
The company's revenue nearly doubled to $126.6 million, largely driven by its high-performance computing (HPC) hosting business. A key factor was the full energization of the first building at its Polaris Forge 1 campus, which generated $85 million in revenue from a major artificial intelligence client.
Furthermore, Applied Digital's adjusted net income was breakeven, which was much better than the loss analysts had predicted. The company also noted it was in advanced talks with a new major tenant. Following the strong results, analysts showed increased confidence, with Roth Capital raising its price target and Arete Research initiating coverage with a 'Buy' rating.
Applied Digital is up 32.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $37.36 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $38.21 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Applied Digital’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $128,654.
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