• Grid-connected data centers can strengthen the bulk power system, CEO Wes Cummins says
• Polaris Forge 3 identified in Center, North Dakota
• Executive traces technology roots to childhood programming on an old Apple computer in rural Idaho

After more than two decades in technology finance, digital infrastructure and capital markets, Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins says he has grown wary of infrastructure narratives that look compelling on paper but lack a realistic path to execution.

That skepticism now informs his view of one of the hottest themes in the AI data center market: behind-the-meter power.

The executive says the industry has leaned too far into behind-the-meter power for AI data centers, arguing that well-sited, on-grid projects can strengthen the bulk system and benefit everyone.

Pointing to Ellendale, North Dakota, Cummins told NPM in an interview this week that the company’s 400 MW project has saved customers more than USD 40m on power over four years while supporting large-scale AI computing via a grid connection.

The behind-the-meter attention, he said, amounts to “massive announcements that will never be built — that gets done a ton in this industry, and it’s not helpful to anyone.”

In addition to the 400 MW Polaris Forge 1 campus in Ellendale, Applied Digital has two 300 MW campuses in Harwood, North Dakota (Polaris Forge 2), and Alexandria, Louisiana (Delta Forge 1) under construction and a planned 430 MW Polaris Forge 3 campus in Center, North Dakota.

In February, amid speculation Applied Digital leaders revealed they were evaluating a site for development in Center. In the larger Oliver County, officials in March enacted a 180-day data center moratorium.

From Idaho to Bitcoin

Cummins said his skepticism toward headline-grabbing infrastructure claims is shaped by the technology cycles he has watched over the course of his career. But his interest in technology started much earlier.

While growing up on an Idaho potato farm – which taught him one thing: he didn’t want to be a potato farmer – he had access to an old Apple computer in primary school, and he would write his own versions of Choose Your Own Adventure books as simple interactive programs.

“It was just an exciting time, and technology always enamored me,” he remembers.

His love of technology grew, and after receiving his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance at Washington University in St. Louis, Cummins got into tech investing at an investment bank in New York at the height of the dot-com bubble.

That era still shapes how he evaluates infrastructure risk, Cummins said, and he’s always mindful of things being too good to be true.

After more than 20 years investing in technology companies, he saw an opening in the infrastructure supporting Bitcoin mining.

In 2021, he launched Applied Digital to build Bitcoin data centers and soon signed a hyperscale-style lease with Marathon Digital (MARA) and built roughly 500 MW of Bitcoin data center capacity over two years.

Move to HPC

About a year into the Bitcoin buildout, Applied Digital shifted its focus to high-performance computing as prospective customers weren’t asking for data center space – they wanted GPU capacity.

The gap in high power density space pushed the company from 10 MW ambitions to hundreds of megawatts and a targeted strategy to serve “the largest hyperscalers in the world” by locking in long term, investment grade tenants.

With those customers in hand, Cummins said, financing has become easier and more repeatable, particularly through the company’s equity and debt partnership with Macquarie Asset Management.

Applied Digital has announced long-term lease agreements with CoreWeave for its Ellendale campus and US-based investment-grade hyperscalers for its Harwood, Alexandria and Center campuses.

The exception to Applied Digital’s contracted model was Ellendale, where the company developed a speculative 100 MW building before signing CoreWeave.

Now, Cummins said Applied is in constant engagement with tenants.

“We’re always showing them our pipeline,” he said. “We’re always showing them timelines of when things can go to RFS (ready for service) at different sites, what’s available, then they get to go through all of our building design and how we’ll deliver.”

While he believes the industry is still in the “early innings” of the AI infrastructure buildout, Cummins said his contracting strategy reflects a view that demand could slow.

Execution crucial

Execution, Cummins said, will separate successful developers from unsuccessful ones over the next decade.

He pointed to site selection, power sourcing, community engagement and operations as the factors that make or break a project, as well as the ability to replicate that formula being key to long-term success.

Another element is having his team of roughly 300 employees “be excited on Sunday nights,” Cummins said, adding that the company tries to maintain an “underdog mentality” even as it scales.

Meanwhile, one of his biggest points of pride is getting to take the economic opportunity that comes with data centers back to towns like the one he grew up in.

“All these communities are slowly dying, and now we get to come in and completely reinvigorate a place, bring hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue to them over a 20-year period,” he said.