Applied Digital (APLD 30.51%) stock skyrocketed 31% on Thursday to close at $13.14, making it one of the day's top-performing small-cap tech stocks. The rally was likely related to the company's stronger-than-expected fiscal Q4 earnings report (released Wednesday after market close) and a major expansion of its long-term lease agreement with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave (CRWV 11.10%). The company saw trading volume more than 2.5 times its recent average, indicating heavy institutional interest. While Applied Digital remains about 17% below its 52-week high of $15.42, the stock decisively broke above recent resistance levels and is now up sharply year-to-date.

Broader markets traded softly, the S&P 500 declined 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite was effectively flat (down 0.03%) after briefly hitting an all-time intraday high. Still, Applied Digital significantly outperformed key peers. DigitalOcean (DOCN 0.29%) was little changed at +0.2%, while Super Micro Computer (SMCI -2.96%) slid 2.9%.

In fiscal Q4, Applied reported $38 million in revenue, up 41% year over year, and an adjusted EPS loss of $0.03, easily beating analyst expectations. Most notably, the company announced that CoreWeave exercised a 150-megawatt (MW) lease option, boosting total contracted capacity to 400 MW and unlocking up to $11 billion in potential revenue over the next 15 years.

CEO Wes Cummins emphasized acceleration at the company's Polaris Forge 1 campus and reiterated long-term plans to generate $1 billion in annual NOI within 3–5 years, supported by demand from hyperscale cloud customers.