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The North Dakota project is designed to sidestep scarce gas turbines, but its first facility is not scheduled to run until late 2028 and a later efficiency upgrade still depends on turbines becoming available.
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Applied Digital’s North Dakota buildout is being designed around equipment it can obtain now, rather than waiting for gas turbines reportedly unavailable until 2032. Its Base Electron agreement covers 1.2 GW of boiler-and-steam-turbine generation across three data centers, with first operations targeted for late 2028. The setup is intended as an interim architecture: the boilers can later support combined-cycle plants once turbines arrive.
Packaged boilers may arrive in a year or less; gas-turbine orders placed now could face delivery dates around 2032.
The $2.4 billion design-and-build agreement covers one site under construction and two North Dakota facilities being finalized.
Applied Digital plans to retain the boilers as heat sources after future gas turbines enable combined-cycle operation.
Applied Digital has committed $2.4 billion to build 1.2 gigawatts of gas-fired boiler and steam-turbine capacity for three North Dakota data-center facilities. The deal offers a route around gas-turbine backlogs, but it is not immediate power: the first site is scheduled to begin operating in late 2028.
The company signed the design-and-build agreement with independent power producer Base Electron. One North Dakota data center is under construction and two more are being finalized. All three are intended to use industrial boilers fueled by natural gas to make steam, which then drives steam turbines to generate electricity.
Applied Digital signed the agreement with Base Electron for the boiler-and-steam-turbine projects.
The capacity is intended for one data center under construction and two additional North Dakota facilities being finalized.
The first facility using the configuration is scheduled to begin operating in late 2028.
Applied Digital does not present the boiler-and-steam-turbine arrangement as its final configuration. It intends to convert the facilities into combined-cycle plants when gas turbines become available. In that setup, the boilers would remain in use, supplementing steam produced from a gas turbine’s exhaust heat.
The appeal is less about a newly invented generation method than about equipment availability. GE Vernova has reported more than 100 GW of gas-turbine orders and slot reservations, while Siemens Energy, Solar Turbines and Mitsubishi Power have also reported supply delays. That leaves developers looking for power equipment with established manufacturing capacity and shorter lead times.
The strategy still carries a timing and efficiency tradeoff. The initial boiler-and-steam-turbine plants depend on burning natural gas, while the planned combined-cycle conversion remains contingent on future turbine availability. Applied Digital’s agreement shows how the turbine backlog is already shaping not just construction schedules, but the first-generation design of AI power systems.
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