Soluna to Form Joint Venture With Applied Digital

The Tip Desk · October 26, 2026 · 3 min read

Following closing, Applied Digital is expected to hold 51% of a jointly owned company to develop a 50 MW critical IT data center at Project Dorothy 3 near Silverton, Texas, expected to draw power from Briscoe Wind and the grid, subject to definitive documentation.

Soluna Holdings, Inc. (SLNH) said it is forming a jointly owned company with Applied Digital Corporation (APLD) to develop a planned 50 MW critical IT data center for AI and high-performance computing at Project Dorothy 3 near Silverton, Texas. Following closing, Applied Digital is expected to hold 51% of the venture and Soluna 49%. The companies said the transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

The structure is a joint venture rather than a purchase of the data-center operator. Soluna is expected to contribute a portion of the Dorothy 3 site, including land and power-related project assets, while Applied is expected to provide capital to support development. Subject to definitive documentation, Phase 1 of Dorothy 3 is expected to draw power from both Briscoe Wind and the grid.

“[W]e have said for a long time that the constraint in AI is energy access, not chips,” said John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna. “We built Soluna to bring load to the generation, so the power would be ready when the demand arrived. Partnering with Applied at Dorothy 3 puts that strategy to work: our site and wind power, combined with a proven builder and operator of AI data centers.”

Dorothy 3 is a planned AI data center co-located with Briscoe Wind, a 150 MW wind farm in Briscoe County, Texas, near Soluna’s Dorothy 1 and Dorothy 2 projects. ChronoScale Holdings Corporation (CHRN), an accelerated compute platform majority-owned by Applied, signed a non-binding letter of intent to lease the planned facility. The lease remains subject to definitive documentation, and the companies said there can be no assurance a definitive lease will be entered into.

Applied Digital is a U.S. designer, developer, owner, and operator of large-scale, purpose-built data centers engineered for HPC workloads, including AI and machine learning. As of August 31, 2026, the company had leases for approximately 1.41 GW of critical IT load across five campuses: Polaris Forge 1, 2, and 3 in North Dakota; Delta Forge 1 in Louisiana; and Delta Forge 2 in Alabama. Those leases represent approximately $36 billion of contracted revenue over their initial base terms, or approximately $86 billion if all renewal options are exercised.

In the fiscal first quarter ended August 31, 2026, Applied Digital reported revenues of $341.9 million, up 322% from the prior-year comparable period. HPC Hosting revenue totaled $262.6 million, including $65.8 million of base rent, $183.5 million of tenant fit-out services, and $13.3 million of tenant recoveries, producing $33.4 million of segment operating profit.

The company said it expects initial operations at Polaris Forge 2 in Harwood to increase delivered critical IT load across its North Dakota campuses to 300 MW by the end of calendar 2026. It also signed an agreement for up to approximately 1 GW of potential power capacity in Finland.

Closing of the Dorothy 3 venture is subject to conditions including a tax abatement in Briscoe County, title policies, corporate approvals, and execution of an operating agreement, definitive leases, and power agreements. The companies said the deal is expected to close by year-end.