AI Data Center Company Executes Executive Equity Adjustment and Cloud Spin-Off Deal Simultaneously

Applied Digital Corp. (APLD) is pursuing an in-kind, share-for-asset transaction under a contribution and share-exchange agreement with Ekso Bionics as part of a broader restructuring of its subsidiary, Applied Digital Cloud. Under the deal, 100% of Applied Digital Cloud’s equity will transfer to Ekso, and in return Ekso will issue a substantial block of newly authorized shares. During the same period, board member Chuck Hastings sold approximately $1.007 million of common stock, generating about $1.77 million (roughly KRW 2.3 billion) in proceeds, while still retaining a significant ownership stake. Company President Jason Gechen Zhang received a grant of 500,000 restricted stock units on February 6, which will vest over the next five years as part of a long-term equity compensation package.

Recently, Applied Digital has signed additional multi-billion-dollar, long-term leases for AI data centers, and is constructing new, large-scale AI facilities at sites including its Polaris Forge campus in North Dakota. The company has also announced plans to develop a private AI data-center site with approximately 430 MW of capacity in the southern U.S. Combined with earlier long-term lease agreements—such as those with CoreWeave—the total value of its signed leases is reported in filings and media reports to be in the tens of trillions of Korean won. Individual contracts are valued at around $5 billion (approximately KRW 6–7 trillion) to $7 billion (around KRW 9 trillion) each.

Applied Digital, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, operates high-performance computing and AI data centers and is building its business on two pillars: next-generation colocation services and AI GPU cloud offerings. As global demand for generative AI and high-performance computing surges, leading cloud providers and specialized data-center operators in the U.S. are expanding AI-infrastructure investments based on multi-trillion-won, long-term power and lease commitments.