Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) and Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) are both riding the artificial intelligence infrastructure wave, but their financial profiles tell very different stories.
Applied Digital builds and operates high-performance computing data centers that serve as the physical backbone for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads across North America.
The company generates revenue primarily through long-term hosting leases with major customers such as CoreWeave and other investment-grade hyperscalers, creating notable customer concentration risk.
To meet surging demand, Applied Digital is expanding aggressively through large-scale projects including Polaris Forge and Delta Forge, adding significant capacity to its data center portfolio.
In its fiscal year 2026, ended May 31, Applied Digital reported revenue of $611.3 million, a remarkable increase of 167% compared to the prior year, reflecting explosive growth in AI hosting demand.
Despite that top-line momentum, the company posted a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $249.2 million for its continuing operations, underscoring the heavy cost of rapid expansion.
Applied Digital has also accumulated over $5 billion in debt as it races to construct new facilities, since it cannot collect lease revenue until those data centers are fully operational.
On the positive side, the company has secured lease agreements worth $36 billion over the next 15 years, providing a long runway of predictable revenue if construction targets are met on schedule.
Super Micro Computer delivered fiscal year 2026 revenue of $39.1 billion, ended June 30, representing growth of 77.8% over the prior fiscal year and reflecting enormous scale in AI server infrastructure.
Unlike many high-growth infrastructure peers, Super Micro is profitable, reporting net income of $2.2 billion and a net margin of 5.7% for the same fiscal period.
The company’s balance sheet as of June 2026 showed a current ratio of 3.9x and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.6x, indicating financial stability and a conservative capital structure relative to smaller infrastructure competitors.
Free cash flow was negative $7.0 billion for the fiscal year, a consequence of the heavy inventory and equipment costs required to satisfy relentless AI-driven server demand across the technology sector.
Super Micro has not been without controversy, as the company’s stock faced near-delisting last year after failing to file required earnings reports within the mandated timeframe.
This year brought further turbulence when one of the company’s founders, who no longer works for Super Micro, was charged with attempting to smuggle servers to China in violation of U.S. export laws.
Despite those headwinds, Super Micro has guided for fiscal year 2027 sales in the range of $65 billion to $72 billion, a substantial leap from the prior year’s $39.1 billion in revenue.
For investors seeking AI infrastructure exposure, Super Micro’s combination of profitability, scale, and aggressive forward guidance makes it the more compelling choice over Applied Digital at this stage.
