Macquarie & Applied Digital: Driving Next-Gen HPC Growth

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Applied Digital is eager to accelerate its HPC efforts (Image: Applied Digital)
Macquarie Asset Management agrees to form a partnership with Applied Digital for funding of up to US$5bn to support data centre HPC growth

Applied Digital Corporation, or Applied Digital, has entered a US$5bn deal with leading investor Macquarie Asset Management.

The company is a designer, builder and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure for high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Such a billion-dollar deal is expected to support more than two gigawatts (2GW) of HPC data centre development. 

Macquarie will be supporting the company’s digital transformations, with US$900m being invested in Applied Digital’s HPC data centre campus.

“We are excited to partner with Applied Digital to build and scale its HPC data centre platform,” says Anton Moldan, Senior Managing Director of Macquarie Asset Management. 

“Applied Digital has a differentiated strategy with access to a unique near-term power portfolio across North America in markets attractive for computing needs which address the most demanding AI and other HPC applications at scale. 

“Applied Digital are certainly one to watch in 2025.”

Andy Davis, Director, DataX Connect

Supporting hyperscale customers

Applied Digital’s purpose-built data centre facilities are engineered to propel the power of accelerated compute forward. The company aims to deliver secure, scalable and sustainable digital hosting, in addition to turnkey CSaaS and GPU-as-a-Service solutions.

Backed by deep hyperscale expertise and a strong pipeline of available power, Applied Digital is also able to accommodate AI Factories to support global AI and machine learning, blockchain and HPC workloads.

Under the terms of the unit purchase agreement, Applied Digital has issued perpetual preferred equity units and common equity units for a Macquarie investment of US$2.25m for each executed lease of one megawatt (1MW) of capacity, in addition to the US$900m to support the 400MW campus built-out in Ellendale. 

Anton Moldan, Senior Managing Director of Macquarie Asset Management

Anton adds: “The significant progress at the Ellendale HPC campus makes this a very compelling opportunity for us as well as for potential hyperscale customers. 

“With our global experience as an owner and manager of data centre platforms, we see this as a highly attractive opportunity to help build an industry-leading HPC data centre company well positioned in these high growth segments of the market.”

The funding from Macquarie will also be used to repay US$180m of existing bridge debt, whilst also allowing Applied Digital to recover over an estimated US$300m of its equity investment in the Ellendale HPC campus.

Macquarie will also have a right of first refusal on all future HPC data centre project funding, which is up to an additional US$4.1bn for 30 months following the close of this deal.

Meeting growing HPC demands

HPC systems are able to significantly improve the performance of data centres. They can process large datasets and complex compute in a much shorter time frame, compared to regular computing.

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Such speed and capability is often critical for applications, services and companies working with AI and big data analytics. As the data centre industry continues to wrestle with the growth of such technologies, having access to additional funding can be really positive for data centre operators.

Likewise, HPC facilities can utilise advanced cooling and power technologies that reduce energy consumption and bolster a company’s sustainability efforts.

“We believe this expanded relationship with Macquarie positions Applied Digital for significant growth in the industry, establishing Applied Digital as one of the fastest-growing HPC data centre owners, operators and developers in the United States,” says Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital.

“At today’s build costs, we will have a significant portion of the equity needed to construct over 2.0 GW of HPC data centre capacity, including our Ellendale HPC Campus.”

Wes Cummins, Chairman and CEO of Applied Digital

“With an 85% ownership stake in both existing and future HPC assets and access to a project-level preferred equity financing facility sufficient to fund our HPC project pipeline, we believe we are poised for transformative progress,” Wes continues. 

“We are excited to have MAM’s support as we establish ourselves as a leader in the Tier 3 data centre infrastructure sector, while continuing to develop and operate large-scale, state of the art data centres for world-class customers at the forefront of the AI revolution.”

Macquarie has also invested in Aligned Data Centers to support its growth with significant additional capital.


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