We just published a list of the 10 Best 52-Week Low NASDAQ Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires and Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) ranked 8th on this list.
Scan the Nasdaq stocks hitting 52-week lows this week and a pattern jumps out: many of the biggest names build, power or rent space for artificial intelligence. Few of these businesses are shrinking. Several reported record revenue in recent weeks, and their shares kept sliding anyway.
A New Political Risk Arrives in Washington
Then came the election. Reuters reported on November 4 that Wall Street closed sharply higher after Democrats won Congress, but data center shares fell on fears of tighter AI regulation. Democrats made gains in Texas and Georgia, where public opposition to the industry's rapid expansion has been growing.
We also wrote about how leverage turned an AI bet into a fire sale for one fund .
The pressure carried into the next day. UBS analysts estimated that around 30% of expected US data center capacity additions in 2028 could be at risk from potential construction pauses, Reuters reported on November 5. Large technology companies, by contrast, rose on the view that a slower buildout would curb their own spending, Reuters said.
Applied Digital hit a new 52-week low and had 18 billionaire holders and 59 hedge fund holders as of Q2 2026.
Applied Digital's stock fell hard when its chief executive said out loud what the market already feared: building data centers takes a lot of money that has not yet been raised. Wes Cummins told CNBC that about 800 megawatts of capacity still needs financing over the next 12 months, and that higher interest rates have raised borrowing costs. Last quarter, interest expense of $77.4 million was larger than the $65.8 million the company collected in base rent. Shares fell again after the midterms, Reuters reported.
Bulls focus on the contracts behind the build. Applied Digital has leases for about 1.41 gigawatts across five campuses, representing roughly $36 billion of contracted revenue over the initial terms, with tenants that include CoreWeave and investment-grade hyperscalers. Revenue rose 322% to $341.9 million last quarter, and the Polaris Forge 1 campus in North Dakota has 250 megawatts running. The argument is that once financing closes, rent from long leases should start to cover the debt. Bulls see financing as a question of when, not whether, given how much rent is already contracted.
Short sellers have noticed too, as our report on Applied Digital's short interest shows.
While we acknowledge the potential of APLD as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock .
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