Data Center Registry

Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1

Ellendale, Dickey County, North Dakota · All 9 Applied Digital sites

OperatingSupportedAI confirmedRecord updated October 28, 2026

Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 is an operating data center in Ellendale, North Dakota (Dickey County), operated by Applied Digital Corporation. The public record puts it at announced June 2025, 400 MW planned, 320 acres. It has documented public support and no documented opposition.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Operating

Operator: Applied Digital Corporation
Facility type: Data center, AI use confirmed
Location: Ellendale, Dickey County, ND
Coordinates: 46.0030, -98.5090 (approximate)
Power capacity: 175 MW operating; 400 MW planned
Land: 320 acres
Investment: Not established from a public source
Announced: June 2025
Utility: Montana-Dakota Utilities
Power source: Grid
Cooling: Closed loop
Water use: Not established from a public source
Jobs: 350 permanent; 450 construction
Public subsidy: Not established from a public source
Community reception: Supported
Source confidence: Confirmed by multiple independent sources or official documentation

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

October 10, 2026
Operating
Campus has live, operational capacity and is no longer solely under construction: Building 1 (100MW) and Building 2 Phase 1 (75MW) have both reached Ready for Service, bringing total live critical IT load to 175MW against a fully-leased, 400MW CoreWeave build-out. Source: Applied Digital Corporation (Investor Relations)
September 10, 2026
Coverage
Officials tout population growth, larger tax base, other benefits of data centers in North Dakota · North Dakota Monitor
December 2025
Under construction
Building 1 fully operational at 100 MW; Buildings 2 (150 MW) and 3 (150 MW) under construction for CoreWeave Source: Data Center Dynamics
October 2025
Operating
Building 1 Phase 1 (50 MW) achieves Ready for Service for CoreWeave Source: Data Center Dynamics
2023
Under construction
AI factory construction begins in Ellendale

Opposition and litigation at this site

Not that we can document. Local officials or residents have expressed public support for Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 in Ellendale, Dickey County, North Dakota, and no opposition, petition, or lawsuit appears in the sources this registry tracks as of October 28, 2026. Ellendale (pop.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: supported means local officials or residents have expressed public support and no opposition is documented.

Ellendale (pop. ~1,000) has welcomed the campus as a transformative economic boost; the state's R-WISH rural-workforce housing program is funding new homes for incoming workers. No documented opposition or litigation. Coverage notes workforce and housing strain as growing pains.

Source: Northern Sentry

Power and water

Designed for near-zero water consumption; proprietary closed-loop direct-to-chip liquid cooling; projected PUE 1.18; campus engineered to scale to 1 GW

Proprietary waterless direct-to-chip liquid cooling; WUE near zero by design

Notes on the record

Campus is 400 MW fully contracted to CoreWeave under ~15-year lease agreements valued at ~$11B total revenue. Three buildings: Building 1 (100 MW) complete Dec 2025; Building 2 (150 MW) had its first 75 MW phase declared Ready for Service in a July 1, 2026 release, bringing live capacity to 175 MW; Building 3 (150 MW) expected 2027. Coordinates are Ellendale city centroid; exact site is northeast of the city. Local jobs are reported only as projections, 'as many as 85 new jobs' (Dec 2024) and up to ~110 total local workforce at full expansion, not confirmed headcounts. As of July 2026, no confirmed total campus capital-expenditure figure was public (the ~$11B CoreWeave figure is 15-year lease revenue, not capex); North Dakota's data-center sales-tax exemption applies but individual award amounts are statutorily confidential. Applied Digital's executive vice president of public affairs and real estate acquisitions said in March 2025 that the first building was about a $1.3 billion investment for the company, with another $4 billion anticipated for the buildings, transformers, chillers and mechanical equipment; because the second amount is anticipated rather than confirmed, no investment figure is recorded. The same executive put the total capital investment on the 320-acre site at about $20 billion, which additionally counts approximately $15 billion the customer was expected to invest.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

Tax abatements or other public subsidy

Which document closes each gap

Tax abatements or other public subsidy: The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

Applied Digital Ellendale Hosting Facility · Ellendale · Applied Digital Corporationunder 1 mile · Operating · 180 MW

Tell us about your situation

Living near Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1?

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Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 data center in Ellendale?

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 data center?

No lawsuit over Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 appears in the record we track as of October 28, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 use?

No water withdrawal figure for Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1 is on record here. Cooling is recorded as closed_loop, which is the strongest available clue: closed loop and air cooled plant draw far less than evaporative cooling. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1, and how big is it?

Applied Digital Corporation is the operator on record. We hold 9 sites for that company across the registry. Capacity on record is 400 MW. The site is recorded at 320 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Applied Digital Polaris Forge 1," updated October 28, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/applied-digital-polaris-forge-1-ellendale-nd.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/applied-digital-polaris-forge-1-ellendale-nd, retrieved October 29, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

1.Applied Digital Announces 250MW AI Data Center Lease With CoreWeave in North Dakota · Applied Digital Corporation · retrieved July 6, 2026
2.Applied Digital completes first data center building at North Dakota campus · Data Center Dynamics · retrieved July 6, 2026
3.A shot in the arm for Ellendale · Northern Sentry · retrieved July 7, 2026
4.InForum, "Applied Digital plans to expand in Ellendale, ND" · retrieved July 25, 2026
5.Applied Digital Delivers Second Building at Polaris Forge 1 · Applied Digital Corporation (Investor Relations) · retrieved October 10, 2026
6.Applied Digital adds 75MW of capacity at Ellendale data center campus in North Dakota · DatacenterDynamics · retrieved October 10, 2026

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