Why it matters
The strategic read
Fills the missing Delta Forge 1 lane in Applied Digital’s AI Factory platform. The April lease disclosed the real contract economics, while Louisiana’s May project announcement identifies the power-and-place stack: Rapides Parish, Cleco support, two 150 MW facilities, closed-loop cooling, and mid-2027 initial operations.
Source-supported terms
What was disclosed
- 01
Applied Digital announced on April 23 that it entered into a lease agreement with a new U.S.-based high investment-grade hyperscaler at Delta Forge 1.
- 02
The lease represents approximately $7.5B in total contracted value over an estimated 15-year lease term.
- 03
The lease covers 300 MW of critical IT load at Delta Forge 1, a 430 MW AI Factory campus purpose-built for AI and HPC infrastructure.
- 04
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 spans more than 500 acres and is designed around high-density power delivery, advanced cooling architecture, and large-scale training and inference workloads.
- 05
Louisiana Economic Development announced on May 26 that Delta Forge 1 is a $3.6B AI factory campus in Rapides Parish, near Boyce, Louisiana.
- 06
The Louisiana announcement says the campus will initially include two facilities totaling 300 MW of critical IT load across approximately 300 acres, with direct access to energy infrastructure.
- 07
Cleco will provide power support for the campus, and Applied Digital qualified for Louisiana state and local sales and use tax exemption on qualifying data-center equipment purchases or leases.
- 08
Site development began in January 2026 and initial operations are expected to begin in mid-2027.
Disclosure boundary
What is known—and what is not
Primary SEC-filed company exhibit plus Louisiana Economic Development announcement; hyperscaler identity, full lease agreement, site power contracts, Cleco tariff/interconnection documents, project financing, EPC awards, detailed construction milestones and option mechanics are not public.