According to DCD, Applied Digital has significantly expanded its partnership with power technology provider ABB to cover a new 300MW AI data center campus in North Dakota. The deal involves ABB supplying both low and medium-voltage electrical infrastructure plus their HiPerGuard Medium Voltage Static Uninterruptible Power Supply systems for the Polaris Forge 2 campus near Harwood. This builds on an existing agreement where ABB committed to similar equipment for Applied’s 400MW campus in Dickey County. The new facility will be developed in two 150MW buildings with phased operational status planned for 2026 and 2027. ABB’s Massimiliano Cifalitti called the medium voltage architecture “a big step forward for large-scale AI facilities” that enables higher efficiency and faster deployment.
North Dakota’s AI boom
Here’s the thing – North Dakota is becoming an unlikely AI infrastructure hotspot. Applied Digital now has multiple massive projects underway across the state, from this new 300MW facility to their 400MW Dickey County campus and the recently activated 50MW phase in Ellendale. They’re basically carpeting the Midwest with data centers. But why North Dakota? Cheap power and land, obviously. And apparently they’re finding enough skilled labor and infrastructure to make it work. Still, building this much capacity in relatively remote locations carries real risks. What happens when the AI compute demand cycle eventually cools? These aren’t small bets.
Power infrastructure challenges
The scale of these projects is staggering when you think about the electrical demands. We’re talking about facilities that each consume as much power as a small city. ABB’s HiPerGuard systems are critical infrastructure here – without reliable power delivery at this scale, the whole AI factory concept falls apart. Applied Digital seems to be betting big on specialized power technology partners like ABB and their recent deal with Babcock & Wilcox for over 1GW of natural gas capacity. But here’s my question: can local grids actually support this much concentrated demand? We’ve seen other data center hubs struggle with power constraints, and North Dakota isn’t exactly known for having surplus transmission capacity.
hardware-demand”>Industrial hardware demand
All this data center expansion creates massive demand for industrial computing equipment that can handle harsh environments and 24/7 operation. Companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have become the go-to source for industrial panel PCs and rugged displays that form the backbone of facility management systems. When you’re dealing with critical infrastructure at this scale, you can’t afford consumer-grade equipment failing in control rooms or monitoring stations. The industrial computing market is seeing unprecedented demand from data center operators who need reliable hardware that won’t quit during peak loads.
From crypto to AI
What’s really interesting is how quickly Applied Digital has pivoted from cryptocurrency mining to AI infrastructure. Their Ellendale facility started as a cryptomine in 2022 and has now been repurposed for AI and high-performance computing through that CoreWeave deal. That flexibility is smart business – when one compute-intensive market cools, pivot to another. But it also makes you wonder about the long-term viability of these specialized facilities. Are we building permanent infrastructure or just the next temporary compute boom? The 2026-2027 timeline for Polaris Forge 2 feels like a bet that AI demand will still be roaring by then. Let’s see if that gamble pays off.
