Applied Digital has begun construction on Delta Forge 1, a large-scale artificial intelligence data center campus designed to meet the surging infrastructure demands of hyperscale AI deployments. The project marks a significant expansion for the U.S.-based digital infrastructure provider as it seeks to position itself at the center of the rapidly intensifying race to convert electrical power into usable AI compute.
The campus, located in a strategic southern U.S. state, is being developed at a moment when enterprises, cloud providers, and AI platform companies are facing mounting constraints around power availability, grid interconnection timelines, and the operational complexity of running high-density AI workloads at scale.
Delta Forge 1 is designed to support an initial 430 megawatts of total utility power across two purpose-built facilities, enabling up to 300 megawatts of critical IT load in its first phase. Applied Digital expects the site to scale significantly from 2028 onward as additional power becomes available and customer demand grows. The project reflects the company’s broader strategy of developing repeatable, hyperscale-ready AI factory campuses that can be deployed consistently across multiple regions without sacrificing performance, reliability, or sustainability goals.
Applied Digital operates as a designer, builder, and operator of high-performance data centers and colocation facilities tailored for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads. The company has increasingly focused on what it describes as “AI factories”: highly standardized, power-dense data center environments optimized for GPU-intensive computing, advanced cooling architectures, and operational rigor. With Delta Forge 1, Applied Digital is extending this model into a new regional market that offers access to large-scale power, favorable development conditions, and long-term economic growth potential.
According to the company, the Delta Forge 1 campus will initially consist of two buildings, each capable of supporting 150 megawatts of capacity, situated on more than 500 acres of land. Once fully operational, the campus is expected to support more than 200 full-time employees, in addition to long-term contractors, contributing sustained employment and investment in the surrounding region. Construction and early site development are now underway, with initial operations targeted for mid-2027.
Wes Cummins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Applied Digital, framed the project as a continuation of the company’s disciplined execution strategy. He emphasized that the success of AI infrastructure increasingly depends on the effective integration of power, cooling, and operations, rather than on compute hardware alone. As AI models grow larger and more energy-intensive, infrastructure providers face rising expectations to deliver facilities that can operate predictably under extreme power densities while maintaining uptime and efficiency.
The timing of the Delta Forge 1 development reflects broader shifts in the data center market. As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across industries, power availability has emerged as one of the primary bottlenecks to growth. Utilities, regulators, and infrastructure developers are grappling with how to bring large amounts of new capacity online fast enough to support hyperscale AI deployments. In this environment, data center operators that can reliably translate raw utility power into operational AI capacity are increasingly viewed as strategic partners rather than commodity landlords.
Applied Digital says Delta Forge 1 will leverage its proprietary AI Factory blueprint, a design and operating framework refined through its earlier Polaris Forge campuses in North Dakota. That blueprint is intended to enable consistent deployment across markets, allowing the company to replicate site layouts, cooling systems, electrical architectures, and operational processes with precision. The goal is to reduce execution risk and shorten delivery timelines for hyperscale customers seeking large, contiguous blocks of AI-ready capacity.
Growing Importance Southern U.S. Markets
The company has also confirmed that it is advancing Delta Forge 1 in active discussions with another prospective investment-grade hyperscale customer. While no customer names have been disclosed, the statement signals continued strong demand from large AI and cloud operators seeking purpose-built infrastructure capable of supporting sustained, high-density workloads. Industry observers note that many hyperscalers are increasingly favoring dedicated or semi-dedicated campuses that offer predictable scaling paths, rather than piecemeal capacity in traditional multi-tenant data centers.
From a regional perspective, the development highlights the growing importance of southern U.S. markets in the AI infrastructure landscape. These regions often combine access to large power resources with comparatively lower land costs and supportive development frameworks, making them attractive for next-generation data center campuses. At the same time, projects of this scale raise questions around grid resilience, long-term energy sourcing, and the balance between economic development and infrastructure strain – issues that local and state stakeholders are increasingly scrutinizing as AI-driven demand rises.
As Delta Forge 1 moves from groundbreaking to construction, its progress will be closely watched by hyperscalers, utilities, and competitors alike. The project underscores how the AI infrastructure race is shifting away from isolated facilities toward large, factory-style campuses designed to scale power, cooling, and operations in lockstep. Whether this model becomes the dominant approach for AI infrastructure over the next decade will depend on how effectively companies like Applied Digital can deliver on timelines, manage complexity, and align with evolving energy and sustainability expectations.
Executive Insights FAQ
Why is power availability becoming the primary constraint for AI infrastructure?
AI workloads, particularly those driven by large language models and advanced analytics, require enormous amounts of electricity and cooling, making power access a critical limiting factor.
What differentiates an AI factory from a traditional data center?
AI factories are purpose-built for high-density computing, emphasizing standardized design, advanced cooling, and operational consistency to support GPU-intensive workloads at scale.
Why are hyperscalers seeking large, dedicated AI campuses?
Dedicated campuses provide predictable scaling, operational control, and the ability to deploy massive compute capacity without the fragmentation often found in traditional colocation environments.
How does a repeatable campus blueprint reduce deployment risk?
Standardized designs and processes minimize engineering variability, shorten construction timelines, and improve reliability as capacity is replicated across multiple sites.
What economic impact do projects like Delta Forge 1 have on local regions?
Beyond construction activity, large AI campuses create long-term jobs, attract supporting industries, and drive sustained investment, while also increasing demands on local power infrastructure.
