Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) Closes $1.59B Bond Deal As Illinois Targets Crypto Transactions
Applied Digital completed a $1.59 billion bond offering to fund 150 MW of IT load for its AI data center campus in Ellendale, North Dakota, with CoreWeave as an anchor tenant. Separately, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill enacting a 0.2% tax on cryptocurrency transactions, effective January 1, 2027, which has drawn criticism from industry groups.
Applied Digital has successfully closed a $1.59 billion private offering of 7.000% senior secured notes due 2031 through its subsidiary APLD ComputeCo 3 LLC. The proceeds are earmarked to finance 150 megawatts of critical IT load for ELN-04, the fourth building at the company's Polaris Forge 1 AI data center campus located in Ellendale, North Dakota. This funding also includes the repayment of a $300 million bridge loan from Goldman Sachs Bank USA. The Polaris Forge 1 campus, anchored by CoreWeave, is part of Applied Digital's substantial long-term lease agreements, valued at approximately $11 billion.
In a separate development, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker enacted Senate Bill 3019, which introduces a 0.2% Digital Asset Privilege Tax on cryptocurrency transactions. This tax, projected to generate over $800 million for the state's fiscal 2027 budget, takes effect on January 1, 2027, and applies to the value of each transaction regardless of profit. Industry groups, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, have condemned the measure as