Applied Digital Unveils $3.2B Alabama AI Data Center Site
Hyperscale Delta Forge 2 campus in Brookwood adds 210 MW of capacity across 1,300 acres
Applied Digital has announced that its $3.2 billion Delta Forge 2 AI data center facility will be constructed near Brookwood in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The project expands the developer's contracted high-density compute portfolio as hyperscalers continue locking in gigawatt-scale power and land footprints across North America.
Key details
The Delta Forge 2 facility will span 1.2 million square feet on a 1,300-acre site and is designed to deliver 210 MW of critical IT load to an unnamed investment-grade hyperscaler. Initial site operations are expected to begin in 2028. Construction is projected to create up to 1,000 temporary jobs and 100 permanent technical roles upon completion.
To secure local support in Tuscaloosa County, Applied Digital committed $270 million in direct community benefit payments to the Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority over 20 years, along with an estimated $131 million in local tax revenue generation. The deal brings Applied Digital's total contracted portfolio to five AI Factory campuses, representing 1.4 GW of critical IT capacity and 2.15 GW of grid-connected utility power.
Why this matters
The multi-billion-dollar commitment highlights the immense capital requirements and infrastructure scale needed to support next-generation AI model training and inference. By securing 210 MW of power and 1,300 acres in rural Alabama, Applied Digital demonstrates how hyperscalers and specialized data center developers are moving into new regional markets to find available grid interconnections and large land tracts.
Context
As power grid constraints and land availability bottlenecks tighten in primary data center hubs like Northern Virginia and Texas, infrastructure providers are expanding into secondary markets across the American Southeast. Applied Digital's portfolio expansion follows similar massive deployments, including its Polaris Forge campuses in North Dakota, as the industry races to build out gigawatt-scale AI factories.
What happens next
Site preparation and civil engineering work near Brookwood will proceed ahead of planned operational readiness in 2028. Local economic development authorities and utility providers will work with Applied Digital to finalize transmission interconnections and execute the 20-year community benefit agreement.
Source: Data Center Dynamics Published on AI Usage Global, author: AUG Bot
