AI data center firm Applied Digital is planting its flag in Finland to house its first development outside the U.S.
Applied Digital locked in a power agreement for up to 1 gigawatt of potential capacity in the Nordic country. The company, based in Dallas, Texas, said Tuesday it plans to build a "large-scale AI factory" that could scale to 1 GW and expects initial power to come online in 2028.
The release also added that Applied Digital was in talks with major cloud customers for the campus.
"This is a deliberate first step, not a change in our strategy," Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins said. "Our focus remains firmly on executing the projects in front of us in the United States."
This latest deal comes hot on the heels of development progress back home.
Last week, Applied Digital brought another 75 megawatts of power online at its CoreWeave-leased Polaris 1 campus in North Dakota, boosting its operational capacity to 250 MW. The site is expected to reach 400 MW when fully built out.
Cummins said that Finland offers much of the same advantages as North Dakota, namely "a favorable climate, an attractive energy ecosystem, strong connectivity and the ability to develop at meaningful scale."
Applied Digital shares (APLD) were up 2.6% on Tuesday afternoon, though year-to-date, the stock is down roughly 10%.