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Applied Digital Sinks 8% as Nebius Outlook and NVIDIA CEO Exit Hit AI Data Center Stocks; Cipher Digital Falls 4%, TeraWulf Slides 3%

By David Moadel
Published November 12, 2026, 11:10am ET · 3 min read

Market Movers desk. Editor: David Moadel.

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A bearded man in a beige shirt and blue lanyard looks down intently at a laptop he holds, standing in a dim, blue-lit server room. Rows of server racks with blinking green and blue lights line the background, creating a futuristic and busy atmosphere.
An IT professional works amidst the glowing server racks of a data center, symbolizing the critical infrastructure driving the current tech rebound. This essential spending benefits major players like Oracle. © DC Studio / Shutterstock.com

Two shocks to the AI infrastructure trade are landing hardest on Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD). Applied Digital stock is at $16.45 in Thursday morning trading, down 8%. The drop gives back the company’s 7% gain on November 11, when the stock closed at $17.91.

Fresh guidance from Nebius (NASDAQ:NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction) rattled the AI cloud trade today. Moreover, at NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), the chipmaker at the center of AI data center spending, Jensen Huang resigned as CEO. Heavy borrowing makes Applied Digital especially sensitive to questions about how AI customers pay for capacity.

Nebius Spending Plan and NVIDIA Leadership Exit Rattle AI Landlords

Nebius reported its Q3 2026 results on November 12 and issued a weak outlook. The company expects 2027 capital expenditures of $40 billion to $45 billion. That spending load raises questions about how quickly AI cloud providers can keep leasing the kind of capacity Applied Digital builds.

News of Huang’s resignation broke before the November 12 open and sent stock futures lower. Technology is the weakest major sector, while the small-cap Russell 2000 index is down 1%. For Applied Digital, whose first Polaris Forge 1 building was designed for liquid-cooled NVIDIA systems, the leadership change adds another layer of uncertainty.

Why Debt Costs Hit Applied Digital Harder

Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Byrd kept an Equal Weight rating on Applied Digital on November 9 and cut his price target to $25 from $41. Byrd raised the discount rates and debt costs he assumes across the AI data center group. Applied Digital’s interest cost, including capitalized interest, was $113.1 million in the quarter ended August 31, well above its $65.8 million of base rent.

CEO Wes Cummins stated on November 2 that Applied Digital still needs funding for roughly 800 MW over the next 12 months. The company’s Louisiana campus could back up to $4.6 billion of local revenue bonds, though no rate has been set. CoreWeave, an AI cloud provider, is among Applied Digital’s tenants.

Cipher Digital, TeraWulf and Core Scientific Fall Less Than Applied Digital

Cipher Digital (NASDAQ:CIFR) stock is at $6.80, down 4%. On November 9, Morgan Stanley also cut its Cipher Digital price target. Like Applied Digital, the company is converting former Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) mining power and land into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers, so it faces similar financing and tenant questions.

Meanwhile, TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF) stock is trading at $12.90, down 3%, the smallest decline among the four names. In Q3, HPC leasing brought in $62.99 million of TeraWulf’s revenue as more Lake Mariner capacity came online.

Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) stock is at $13.88, down 5%. That’s a steeper slide than Cipher Digital’s, though still milder than Applied Digital’s. Last week, Texas’s governor-elect promised a data center moratorium following the November 3 midterm elections.

How Applied Digital Builds Differently From Its Peers

Applied Digital owns the land, designs the buildings and operates its AI factory campuses, then leases them to investment-grade hyperscalers under long take-or-pay contracts. The company’s biggest campuses sit in North Dakota, where cheap power and a cool climate support large builds, and it’s expanding into Louisiana and Alabama.

Cipher Digital funds each campus with ring-fenced project bonds and still runs a legacy mining site in Odessa, Texas. TeraWulf backs its Anthropic lease with investment-grade credit support, while Core Scientific plans to exit mining by year-end and operate as a pure colocation provider. Each model still depends on tenants that can keep paying for computing capacity as costs rise.

Applied Digital’s Funding Test Comes Next

Applied Digital still faces the question of whether it can finance its remaining expansion at rates its leases can cover. January 2027 is when Applied Digital’s Q2 FY2027 report is expected, and it could bring the next funding update.

Management’s view that demand remains “extremely robust” and $36 billion of contracted revenue supports the case for optimism. On the other side, the bears point to Applied Digital’s $6.4 billion of debt and its reliance on CoreWeave. A cautious investment approach could make sense until Applied Digital’s funding plan becomes clearer.

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David Moadel

David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk. His work has appeared in 24/7 Wall St., The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, MarketScreener, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, and others. With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.

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