Nvidia (NVDA) is clearly the poster child of the AI boom.

It’s got a hold on chipmaking, the software stack, and invests in virtually any startup or business whose fingerprints are on breakout. 

Consequently, as Big Tech continues to build out its GPUs, Nvidia-backed upstarts are grabbing headlines of their own. As a result, the tech behemoth has built an ecosystem with real gravity, and if you’re in AI infrastructure, you’re either building with Nvidia or looking to catch someone who is.

In that backdrop, you have an AI infrastructure stock that’s up a mind-boggling 132% in the past month in Applied Digital (APLD). 

Think of the company as a landlord for the AI rush, which effectively converts raw land into high-power “compute neighborhoods,” then leases that space to tenants that need dense racks of GPUs. 

So instead of just selling chips, it charges its customers for the electricity, space, and airflow those chips need to run at full tilt. Layer in a relatively small but meaningful Nvidia equity stake (roughly 3%), and you have a no-brainer “pick-and-shovel” play on AI.

Today, that setup paid off. 

The stock ripped following stronger-than-expected earnings results, and more importantly, a marquee deal with another red-hot AI stock in CoreWeave.

Management kept the specifics relatively tight in the initial cadence, but the signal remains loud, led by a growth runway that just got a lot wider. 

CoreWeave deal fuels Applied Digital’s monster AI run

AI infrastructure player Applied Digital kept its monster 2025 run alive Oct. 10, with shares up 21% in early trading and on pace to notch a third straight day in the green. The surge follows a blowout quarterly earnings result, along with a fresh leasing agreement with CoreWeave.

Its Q1 FY26 results ( quarter ended August 31) showed Applied reporting an adjusted loss of $0.03 per share, significantly lower than Wall Street’s expected $0.16 loss, on $64.2 million in sales, while topping forecasts by more than $14 million. 

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The upside came from healthier utilization rates, along with demand for high-density compute infrastructure as AI workloads grow across the sector.

However, the headline grabber was a new 150-megawatt CoreWeave lease that fully books Applied’s Polaris Forge 1 data center in North Dakota. 

The landmark agreement essentially pushes total contracted lease sales to nearly $11 billion, offering its investors rare visibility into multi-year cash flows while solidifying CoreWeave as a cornerstone tenant.

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To fund the expansion, Applied tapped $112.5 million from its $5 billion Macquarie equity facility, along with another $250 million through preferred stock and equipment financing. Additionally, construction of Polaris Forge 2, its colossal 200-megawatt campus slated to go live next year, is already underway.

For more context, the stock is up more than 360% year-to-date, and over 537% in the past six months, solidifying its status as the most-watched AI infrastructure bets heading into year-end.

Quick takeaways:

• AI-fueled breakout: Shares skyrocketed 21% Oct. 10, stretching Applied Digital’s monster 2025 run into a third straight green day.
• Numbers that hit: Quarterly loss dropped to just $0.03 a share on $64.2 million in sales, blowing through Street forecasts.
• CoreWeave catalyst: A 150-megawatt lease filled out its North Dakota data center, while locking in roughly $11 billion in long-term revenue.

Analysts lift targets as Applied Digital’s AI pipeline accelerates

Applied Digital kept its rally alive Oct. 10, after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results while securing a wave of analyst upgrades.

Citizens reiterated a market outperform rating on the stock while bumping its price target to $40 from $35, noting that the stock’s valuation hinges almost entirely on the company’s expanding AI hyperscale leasing base.

With 400 MW already leased out to CoreWeave and growing visibility on another 1 GW of powered capacity, analysts see robust momentum.

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Needham followed suit, raising its target to $41 from $21 while maintaining a buy, highlighting that “all eyes now turn to Polaris Forge 2,” which is Applied’s next 280 MW AI campus near Harwood, North Dakota.

Craig-Hallum also tweaked its price target on the stock to $37, underscoring how the company has basically flipped its story, with the CoreWeave deal, fresh financing from Macquarie, and early-stage talks with two brand-new hyperscalers. 

Also, analysts at Roth MKM lifted their target on APLD stock to an eye-catching $56 (buy), citing accelerating AI leasing. Similarly, Northland analysts kept the momentum, raising their target to $40 (outperform) on APLD, arguing that the story is efficiently shifting to multi-year contracted cash flows with build times compressing over time.

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