(Reuters) – Investment bank Macquarie will invest up to $5 billion in AI data centers Applied Digital and will take a 15% stake in the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, sending the tech company's shares up over 30% in premarket trading. .
The artificial intelligence boom has prompted companies to invest heavily in technology that can process large amounts of data.
Macquarie's asset management arm has agreed to invest up to $900 million in a data center campus that Applied Digital is developing in North Dakota, the report said.
It also has the right of first refusal to invest an additional $4.1 billion in future company data centers for 30 months, according to the WSJ report.
Applied Digital and Macquarie did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The new funding will be used to repay debt that Applied Digital took on to build the facilities in North Dakota and will allow it to recoup more than $300 million of its equity investment in them, the report said.
Applied Digital's shares have more than tripled in the past two years as investors bet on AI companies and data center providers to deliver strong growth levels.
Microsoft said earlier this month that it would invest about $80 billion in AI data centers in fiscal 2025 to meet growing computing needs.
Applied Digital is expected to report its second quarter results on Tuesday after the markets close.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Maju Samuel)