Applied Digital has brought another 75 MW of critical IT capacity to Ready for Service at its Polaris Forge 1 campus in Ellendale, North Dakota, raising the AI and high-performance computing site’s fully operational capacity to 250 MW.
The company announced the milestone on October 2 after completing the second phase of Building 2, comprising three data halls rated at 25 MW each. The delivery takes Building 2 to its full 150 MW of critical IT load, alongside the campus’s first 100 MW building.
Polaris Forge 1 now has 250 MW of fully operational critical IT load. The fully leased campus is contracted for 400 MW at full buildout, leaving another 150 MW between the current operational footprint and the contracted final capacity.
Three more data halls reach Ready for Service
The latest delivery covers the second 75 MW phase of Building 2. Applied Digital had previously completed the building’s first 75 MW phase, and the new capacity brings the structure to its planned 150 MW critical IT load.
Combined with the initial 100 MW building, Applied Digital now describes 250 MW at Polaris Forge 1 as fully operational. The campus is purpose-built for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads and is fully leased, according to the company.
| Polaris Forge 1 capacity | Status |
|---|---|
| Building 1 | 100 MW operational |
| Building 2, first phase | 75 MW operational |
| Building 2, second phase | 75 MW newly Ready for Service |
| Current campus total | 250 MW operational critical IT load |
| Contracted full buildout | 400 MW critical IT load |
The milestone is operational, not just planned capacity
The distinction between planned power and Ready for Service capacity is important for AI infrastructure projects. Applied Digital’s October announcement concerns data halls that have advanced through construction and commissioning to a delivery milestone, rather than another proposed expansion or power reservation.
The company did not disclose server utilization or the amount of accelerator hardware installed in the newly completed halls. The confirmed change is therefore the availability of another 75 MW of critical IT infrastructure, not 75 MW of active GPU consumption.
That brings the campus substantially closer to its contracted 400 MW buildout. Based on Applied Digital’s announced figures, 62.5% of the contracted critical IT load is now operational, with 150 MW still separating the current footprint from full buildout.
Polaris Forge 1 expands in stages
The Ellendale campus has been coming online incrementally rather than as a single 400 MW delivery. Applied Digital previously completed the 100 MW first building before delivering the first 75 MW phase of Building 2.
That earlier phase brought operational capacity to 175 MW. The latest three halls add another 75 MW and complete Building 2 at 150 MW, pushing the campus total to 250 MW.
Staged commissioning is particularly relevant for large AI campuses because power availability alone does not produce usable compute capacity. Electrical distribution, cooling, data halls and supporting infrastructure must be completed and commissioned before customer systems can be deployed at scale.
A 400 MW contracted campus
Applied Digital says Polaris Forge 1 is fully leased and contracted to provide 400 MW of critical IT load at full buildout. The October 2 announcement does not change that final target; it changes how much of the contracted footprint the company says is operational.
The campus is part of Applied Digital’s shift toward infrastructure designed for dense AI and HPC deployments. The company describes its facilities as incorporating closed-loop cooling and power infrastructure intended for high-density computing.
For infrastructure operators, the relevant metric is the conversion of contracted capacity into commissioned data halls. Large AI projects are increasingly measured not only by announced megawatts but by how quickly developers can turn secured sites and electricity into infrastructure ready to receive computing equipment.
What happens next
The remaining milestone at Polaris Forge 1 is the delivery of the rest of the campus’s contracted 400 MW critical IT footprint. Applied Digital has 250 MW in the operational category following the latest commissioning, leaving 150 MW still to reach that status.
The company did not announce a change to the campus’s ultimate capacity in the October 2 update. The immediate development is narrower and measurable: three additional data halls have moved into Ready for Service status, Building 2 has reached its full 150 MW, and Polaris Forge 1 now stands at 250 MW of operational critical IT infrastructure.
