Accelerating AI Adoption Will Expand Data Center Capacity

Key Takeaways

• Long-term AI infrastructure contracts, rapid build times, and sustainable tech position the company to outpace industry growth and command premium pricing.
  
• Strategic partnerships and high entry barriers enable strong relationships with hyperscalers, supporting predictable earnings and continued market share gains.
  
• Heavy dependence on few large clients, high debt, and exposure to volatile crypto markets create significant risks to revenue stability and long-term profitability.

Catalysts

Designs, develops, and operates digital infrastructure solutions to high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence industries in North America.

• Analysts broadly agree that the CoreWeave lease and campus expansion will substantially increase recurring revenues, but the full scope of these multi-gigawatt, 15-year AI infrastructure contracts-with additional expansion rights recently exercised-could catapult Applied Digital's annualized contracted revenue and net operating income far beyond current projections as demand for AI compute surges.
  
• Analyst consensus sees benefit from capital partnerships and financing, but the company's rapid reduction in build times from 24 months to as little as 12 months-combined with increasingly streamlined designs and supply consolidation-points to materially faster revenue ramp, lower construction costs per megawatt, and significantly improved operating margins over the next several years.
  
• Applied Digital's proprietary closed-loop direct-to-chip liquid cooling, industry-leading PUE target of 1.18, and nearly zero water usage directly align with the escalating demand for sustainable, high-efficiency compute, positioning the company for premium pricing and higher EBITDA margins as customers pay up for best-in-class ESG solutions.
  
• Barriers to entry for next-generation AI data centers-including complex onboarding with hyperscalers, power sourcing, and technical due diligence-have positioned Applied Digital as one of the few "approved" providers, likely leading to winning share from hyperscalers' accelerating capacity offloads and increasing long-term lease value and predictability of earnings.
  
• The accelerating digital transformation and pervasive adoption of AI and machine learning is driving an industry-wide supply-demand imbalance that could allow Applied Digital, as a first-mover with deep hyperscaler relationships and a scalable development model, to continuously grow its revenue base and contract pipeline at an above-industry rate for the next decade or more.

Applied Digital Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• This narrative explores a more optimistic perspective on Applied Digital compared to the consensus, based on a Fair Value that aligns with the bullish cohort of analysts.
• The bullish analysts are assuming Applied Digital's revenue will grow by 79.7% annually over the next 3 years.
• The bullish analysts assume that profit margins will increase from -111.6% today to 29.0% in 3 years time.
• The bullish analysts expect earnings to reach $242.5 million (and earnings per share of $0.84) by about August 2028, up from $-161.0 million today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the price target of the more bullish analyst cohort, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 39.2x on those 2028 earnings, up from -22.7x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the US IT industry at 26.8x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 7.0% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 8.72%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Applied Digital Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• Applied Digital's heavy reliance on long-term, high-capacity leases with a small number of hyperscaler customers-most notably CoreWeave and a few others in the onboarding process-exposes the company to significant customer concentration risk, which could create abrupt swings in revenue and threaten earnings stability if even one large contract is altered or lost.
  
• The company's business model is predicated on running large-scale, high-energy data centers, exposing it to tightening environmental regulation and growing scrutiny over power consumption, both of which could increase compliance costs and constrain margin expansion.
  
• Applied Digital's capital expenditures for building new data centers are extremely high with substantial debt already on the balance sheet, raising the risk of negative free cash flow and continued net losses that may force further share dilution or expensive financing, eroding long-term earnings per share for investors.
  
• As chip technology, server efficiency, and cloud-based solutions rapidly evolve, larger cloud providers with better access to cheap capital and technology may outcompete Applied Digital, pressuring both its net margins and future revenues as the market continues to consolidate.
  
• The company remains highly exposed to the cryptocurrency sector on its hosting side, making its revenues vulnerable to volatility in Bitcoin and other digital asset markets, which could further destabilize year-over-year growth and earnings.

Valuation

• The assumed bullish price target for Applied Digital is $23.09, which represents two standard deviations above the consensus price target of $17.22. This valuation is based on what can be assumed as the expectations of Applied Digital's future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors from analysts on the bullish end of the spectrum.
  
• However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $24.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $13.0.
  
• In order for you to agree with the bullish analysts, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be $836.5 million, earnings will come to $242.5 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 39.2x, assuming you use a discount rate of 8.7%.
  
• Given the current share price of $13.95, the bullish analyst price target of $23.09 is 39.6% higher.
  
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.