Soluna, Applied Digital Plan 50-Megawatt AI Data Center in Texas

Soluna (NASDAQ: SLNH) Holdings agreed to form a venture with Applied Digital to develop a 50-megawatt artificial intelligence data center in Texas, with a prospective tenant affiliated with Applied signing a nonbinding lease letter.

Applied would own 51% and contribute development capital, while Soluna would hold 49% and provide land and power-related assets, Soluna said on Wednesday. The facility would occupy part of its Dorothy 3 site near Silverton.

Soluna shares rose 5.75% to 61.02 cents in premarket trading on Wednesday, after closing the previous session down 2.34%.

The venture is expected to close by year-end 2026, subject to county tax-abatement approval, title policies, corporate approvals and definitive operating, lease and power agreements.

ChronoScale Holdings, majority-owned by Applied, signed the lease letter. A binding lease remains to be negotiated. The first phase would draw electricity from both Briscoe Wind Farm and the grid.

The proposal advances Soluna’s effort to develop AI infrastructure alongside a business built around bitcoin mining. Soluna bought the 150-megawatt Briscoe wind farm on April 1 for a base price of $53 million. In its second-quarter update, it described a broader Dorothy 3 campus planned for 300 megawatts and a separate venture with Metrobloks targeting an initial 100 megawatts at Project Kati 2.

Soluna cautioned in its June-quarter filing that developing AI capacity at scale requires substantially more capital than its existing bitcoin operations. It said it was evaluating project equity, debt and partnerships to finance that expansion.

ChronoScale separately reported a 50-megawatt Microsoft AI deployment in its Oct. 15 earnings release. That disclosure identified outstanding lease and tenant fit-out arrangements for a Texas facility supporting Microsoft. Soluna’s announcement did not identify the end customer for Dorothy 3.