Former crypto-mining company building 430 MW datacenter in secret location for secret client
(2026/01/23)
- Reference: 1769131443
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/23/applied_digital_secret_datacenter/
- Source link:
Crypto miner turned AI infrastructure provider Applied Digital announced it has broken ground on a 430 MW data center somewhere in the southern US, but it isn’t yet ready to reveal the location of its new facility.
The company has faced negative reactions to past projects. In Harwood, North Dakota, locals opposed the company’s plans to build a data center campus. Another of the company’s projects, in Ellendale, Colorado, also attracted attention – not all of it positive.
Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins told The Register the decision not to name its new location is to give the town time to gird for national media attention.
[1]
“We’re not trying to hide anything,” he said. “You go to some of these small locations … It’s not like these towns have really sophisticated public communications departments with people that handle all of this. It’s really a sensitivity for them, not for us.”
[2]
[3]
Cummins said the community around the future data center will have a chance to weigh in on the deal soon.
“The public is going to find out everything about it. It's not being done to stop the public from finding out about it at all,” he said. “We’ve changed our approach with these locations themselves. When we did Ellendale, you’d get a little bit, not a lot of reaction, like ‘Oh that’s cool.’ or ‘These guys are crazy.’ Now these guys need to prepare a little more. Not from a local perspective, but it kind of gets shined on nationally these days. When you’re dealing in towns of hundreds of people, sometimes that’s a bit overwhelming.”
[4]
He told The Register Applied Digital currently intends to announce the data center’s location in February.
“You will see in the near future where all of this is going and you will see we’re not circumventing public comments or anything of that nature,” he said.
Cummins has teased the deal for weeks, saying in an earnings call that Applied Digital is nearing an agreement with an “investment-grade hyperscaler” to build datacenters at multiple sites in the southern US.
[5]
The company dubbed the site announced yesterday “Delta Forge 1”, following the company’s naming convention that takes its cues from the world of fire, steel, and knifemaking shows by labeling each of its bit barns as a “forge” of some type.
In North Dakota, the company operates facilities named Polaris Forge 1 and Polaris Forge 2.
The Delta Forge 1 campus will initially host two 150 MW buildings spanning more than 500 acres. Once fully operational, the company expects the campus will employ over 200 full-time workers, plus long-term contractors.
Applied Digital plans to bring the new facility online in mid-2027, if all goes to plan.
Cummins teased the project during the company’s second quarter earnings call two weeks ago.
“Inbound demand has increased meaningfully. As a result, we are in advanced discussions with another investment-grade hyperscaler across multiple regions, including additional locations in the Dakotas and select southern US markets,” he told investors on January 8. “We’ll start construction on at least one new campus by the end of January. That’s because we have a high degree of confidence that we’re going to sign a lease with a new customer.”
In 2020, Applied Digital was known as [6]Applied Blockchain and mined Ethereum. Its initial 1.5 GW of under construction power capacity was co-owned with Bitmain and it planned to "primarily host servers securing the Bitcoin network but can also host hardware for other applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other blockchain networks in the future."
Applied Digital has announced a lease with [7]Coreweave , another infrastructure company that used to be a crypto miner, for some of the capacity it has at Polaris Forge 1. The crypto-turned-AI-infrastructure pivot also encompasses Crusoe, which has [8]teamed up with Oracle and OpenAI on its Stargate datacenter buildout plans, as well as several other players.
Applied Digital also announced a [9]$5 billion, 15-year lease for 200 megawatts of capacity at Polaris Forge 2 in Harwood, North Dakota with an unnamed tenant.
In Harwood, a town of 900 people, the company faced [10]community opposition to its $3 billion, 280 MW data center, with residents concerned about noise, utility rate [11]increases, and sprawl .
In Thursday’s press release announcing the groundbreaking, the company also failed to disclose a client but reiterated that it was in talks with an “investment-grade hyperscale customer.”
Cummins has previously said Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Google meet his definition of “investment-grade.”
It remains a mystery which of those tech giants signed a deal for Delta Forge 1.
In an October 2025 investor deck, the company listed several projects in its pipeline, including “ [12]430 MW - SITE E ” which would match the size of the project announced on Thursday.
During an appearance on a [13]YouTube channel last month , Cummins said Applied Digital liked working in the US south because the construction season there is longer, meaning work can commence during winter, as opposed to the company’s major operations in North Dakota where crews can’t do some work until April or May.
“The prime advantage there is we can do dirt work in the winter, so when you’re doing construction it's pretty helpful,” he told the host of the Wescon Inc. YouTube channel. “That’s what you should expect. More campuses. More locations. More customers.” ®
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[6] https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/all-sec-filings?form_type=&year=2021##document-100-0001104659-21-149464-2
[7] https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/128/applied-digital-finalizes-additional-150mw-lease-with
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/oracle_denies_openai_delays/
[9] https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/132/applied-digital-announces-5-billion-ai-factory-lease-with
[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvF_Bq4JbE
[11] https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/08/25/data-center-proposed-for-harwood-prompts-anger-questions-from-community-members/
[12] https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_5d2dedff216c85881ded52d2b03e1a90/appliedblockchaininc/db/2905/27257/pdf/APLD_INV_FinalPresentation_10.21.25.pdf
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEcTPvdMu-E
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The company has faced negative reactions to past projects. In Harwood, North Dakota, locals opposed the company’s plans to build a data center campus. Another of the company’s projects, in Ellendale, Colorado, also attracted attention – not all of it positive.
Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins told The Register the decision not to name its new location is to give the town time to gird for national media attention.
[1]
“We’re not trying to hide anything,” he said. “You go to some of these small locations … It’s not like these towns have really sophisticated public communications departments with people that handle all of this. It’s really a sensitivity for them, not for us.”
[2]
[3]
Cummins said the community around the future data center will have a chance to weigh in on the deal soon.
“The public is going to find out everything about it. It's not being done to stop the public from finding out about it at all,” he said. “We’ve changed our approach with these locations themselves. When we did Ellendale, you’d get a little bit, not a lot of reaction, like ‘Oh that’s cool.’ or ‘These guys are crazy.’ Now these guys need to prepare a little more. Not from a local perspective, but it kind of gets shined on nationally these days. When you’re dealing in towns of hundreds of people, sometimes that’s a bit overwhelming.”
[4]
He told The Register Applied Digital currently intends to announce the data center’s location in February.
“You will see in the near future where all of this is going and you will see we’re not circumventing public comments or anything of that nature,” he said.
Cummins has teased the deal for weeks, saying in an earnings call that Applied Digital is nearing an agreement with an “investment-grade hyperscaler” to build datacenters at multiple sites in the southern US.
[5]
The company dubbed the site announced yesterday “Delta Forge 1”, following the company’s naming convention that takes its cues from the world of fire, steel, and knifemaking shows by labeling each of its bit barns as a “forge” of some type.
In North Dakota, the company operates facilities named Polaris Forge 1 and Polaris Forge 2.
The Delta Forge 1 campus will initially host two 150 MW buildings spanning more than 500 acres. Once fully operational, the company expects the campus will employ over 200 full-time workers, plus long-term contractors.
Applied Digital plans to bring the new facility online in mid-2027, if all goes to plan.
Cummins teased the project during the company’s second quarter earnings call two weeks ago.
“Inbound demand has increased meaningfully. As a result, we are in advanced discussions with another investment-grade hyperscaler across multiple regions, including additional locations in the Dakotas and select southern US markets,” he told investors on January 8. “We’ll start construction on at least one new campus by the end of January. That’s because we have a high degree of confidence that we’re going to sign a lease with a new customer.”
In 2020, Applied Digital was known as [6]Applied Blockchain and mined Ethereum. Its initial 1.5 GW of under construction power capacity was co-owned with Bitmain and it planned to "primarily host servers securing the Bitcoin network but can also host hardware for other applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other blockchain networks in the future."
Applied Digital has announced a lease with [7]Coreweave , another infrastructure company that used to be a crypto miner, for some of the capacity it has at Polaris Forge 1. The crypto-turned-AI-infrastructure pivot also encompasses Crusoe, which has [8]teamed up with Oracle and OpenAI on its Stargate datacenter buildout plans, as well as several other players.
Applied Digital also announced a [9]$5 billion, 15-year lease for 200 megawatts of capacity at Polaris Forge 2 in Harwood, North Dakota with an unnamed tenant.
In Harwood, a town of 900 people, the company faced [10]community opposition to its $3 billion, 280 MW data center, with residents concerned about noise, utility rate [11]increases, and sprawl .
In Thursday’s press release announcing the groundbreaking, the company also failed to disclose a client but reiterated that it was in talks with an “investment-grade hyperscale customer.”
Cummins has previously said Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Google meet his definition of “investment-grade.”
It remains a mystery which of those tech giants signed a deal for Delta Forge 1.
In an October 2025 investor deck, the company listed several projects in its pipeline, including “ [12]430 MW - SITE E ” which would match the size of the project announced on Thursday.
During an appearance on a [13]YouTube channel last month , Cummins said Applied Digital liked working in the US south because the construction season there is longer, meaning work can commence during winter, as opposed to the company’s major operations in North Dakota where crews can’t do some work until April or May.
“The prime advantage there is we can do dirt work in the winter, so when you’re doing construction it's pretty helpful,” he told the host of the Wescon Inc. YouTube channel. “That’s what you should expect. More campuses. More locations. More customers.” ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
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[6] https://ir.applieddigital.com/sec-filings/all-sec-filings?form_type=&year=2021##document-100-0001104659-21-149464-2
[7] https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/128/applied-digital-finalizes-additional-150mw-lease-with
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/oracle_denies_openai_delays/
[9] https://ir.applieddigital.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/132/applied-digital-announces-5-billion-ai-factory-lease-with
[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvF_Bq4JbE
[11] https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/08/25/data-center-proposed-for-harwood-prompts-anger-questions-from-community-members/
[12] https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_5d2dedff216c85881ded52d2b03e1a90/appliedblockchaininc/db/2905/27257/pdf/APLD_INV_FinalPresentation_10.21.25.pdf
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEcTPvdMu-E
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/