On the Lightning Round of Mad Money on April 29, 2026, a caller named Bob from Florida told Jim Cramer he was “knee-deep in Applied Digital right now, and they just signed that big $7.5 billion contract.” Cramer’s response cut against the contract-driven enthusiasm: “The problem there is that you’ve got a stock that is making no money in a market where many people are making money, and people are switching from the losers to the winners.” His verdict: “I’m going to say no to Applied Digital.”
Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) is the AI data center landlord behind Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, North Dakota. The headline contract Bob referenced is the lease arrangement with CoreWeave, structured as two initial 15-year leases covering 250 MW for roughly $7 billion, later expanded by 150 MW option that brings aggregate anticipated lease revenue at the site to about $11 billion. Stack on a 200 MW Polaris Forge 2 lease with an investment-grade hyperscaler worth around $5 billion, and the company markets roughly $16 billion in contracted lease revenue across 600 MW.
Where Cramer’s “No Money” Critique Lands
The fiscal Q3 2026 release filed on April 8, 2026 shows the disconnect. Revenue came in at $126.64 million, up 139.29% year-over-year, and beat the $78.48 million consensus. Adjusted EPS of $0.09 vs. a -$0.21 estimate looked clean.
The GAAP picture differs. Operating income was -$85.67 million, and net loss attributable to common stockholders widened to $100.9 million, hit by a $59.7 million non-cash loss on the Cloud Services reclassification and $39.3 million from stock-based compensation from accelerated vesting. SG&A expanded 251% YoY. Debt sits at roughly $2.7 billion against $2.1 billion of cash and restricted cash.
CEO Wes Cummins told investors the 100 MW direct-to-chip liquid-cooled facility “represents approximately one-sixth of our contracted capacity and one-tenth of what is operating or under construction.” He also noted hyperscaler annual capex has jumped from roughly $400 billion to nearly $700 billion. Management targets over $1 billion of NOI within five years, against a current adjusted EBITDA run rate of about $176 million annualized.
The Rotation Argument
Cramer’s broader point concerns rotation out of money-losing growth stories. The market has not punished APLD, with shares up 629.58% over the last year and 59.09% in the past month to $34.80 intraday on April 30. Forward valuation is rich. Alpha Vantage tags the stock at a forward P/E of 526, a price/sales of 29, and a beta of 7.27. Wall Street’s average target sits at $53.91 with 12 buy-or-better ratings and zero sells, so analysts are not echoing Cramer.
The Q3 reaction on April 8 illustrated the tension. Despite a 142.86% EPS surprise, the stock initially fell, then recovered toward $30.09 a week later. Investors should track when contracted megawatts convert into GAAP profit, the closing of the ChronoScale spin-off via EKSO Bionics, and capacity coming online at Polaris Forge 2 and Delta Forge 1.
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