BASX Powers Advanced Cooling Innovation for Applied Digital's Purpose-Built AI Data Center Campus
At Applied Digital's Ellendale, North Dakota campus, BASX is deploying bespoke free cooling chillers — optimized for cold-climate operation, reducing power demand, and requiring zero water consumption
REDMOND, Ore., June 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BASX, a leader in advanced cooling and custom solutions for data centers and mission-critical environments, and a wholly owned subsidiary of AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON), a leading provider of high-performance, energy-efficient HVAC solutions, today announced a partnership with Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) ("Applied Digital"). Applied Digital, a designer, builder, and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure designed for High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications.
As part of the collaboration, BASX designed and manufactured a customized free cooling chiller system for Applied Digital's AI factory in Ellendale, North Dakota, known as Polaris Forge 1. The system is purpose-built to meet the performance demands of AI infrastructure in a cold climate, while maximizing energy efficiency and sustainability.
Built to endure the harshest climates, the free cooling chiller system performs in three optimized modes –– all with zero water use.
- Full Free Cooling: Rejects 100% of the IT load using only pumps and fans.
- Partial Free Cooling: Leverages ambient air to handle as much of the load as possible, supplementing with direct expansion (DX) cooling as needed.
- Full Mechanical Cooling: Engages compressors and coils to provide full DX capacity during peak ambient conditions.
"As a leading provider of AI factories, designed and built specifically to support NVIDIA liquid-cooled GPUs, innovation is a core component of our business. We presented a challenge to BASX to develop a highly efficient chiller to leverage North Dakota's climate conditions and the demands presented by liquid-cooled servers and, as they are known to do, BASX engineered, designed, and built a world-class system that we are deploying at our Polaris Forge 1 site." said Todd Gale, Chief Development Officer at Applied Digital.
"From the onset, this was about more than delivering standard HVAC — it was a collaboration between two teams determined to break away from cookie-cutter solutions," said Matt Tobolski, PhD – AAON CEO & BASX Co-Founder. "Applied Digital brought us a clear challenge, and we responded with a system engineered from the ground up to meet it. We solve problems at the root and build for what's next, not just what's easy."
AI factories like Polaris Forge 1 require 15 to 30 times the power density of traditional data centers, making conventional power and cooling strategies insufficient, according to a May 28, 2024, press release from Applied Digital. Meeting these demands requires infrastructure engineered from the ground up to support high-density, compute-intensive workloads.
As AI adoption accelerates, demand for high-efficiency cooling solutions continues to grow. Higher return fluid temperatures enabled by direct-to-chip cooling allow more heat to be rejected directly to ambient air, even in warmer conditions. This system demonstrates a scalable approach to thermal management — designed for operators who prioritize innovation, efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
ABOUT BASX
BASX, a wholly owned subsidiary of AAON, is a leader in manufacturing high-efficiency data center cooling, cleanroom systems, custom HVAC, and modular solutions. For the past 40 years, the BASX team has been recognized as leaders in the development of industry-changing innovations such as changes in the way fans are applied in modern air handling systems. With in-house manufacturing and a dedicated engineering team providing end-to-end support, BASX delivers fully custom solutions tailored to each client's unique needs. Headquartered in Redmond, Oregon, with additional facilities in Tulsa, Longview, and Memphis, BASX remains committed to quality, reliability, and exceptional customer service worldwide.
ABOUT AAON
Founded in 1988, AAON is a world leader in HVAC solutions for commercial and industrial indoor environments. The Company's industry-leading approach to designing and manufacturing highly configurable equipment to meet exact needs creates a premier ownership experience with greater efficiency, performance and long-term value. AAON is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where its world-class innovation center and testing lab allows AAON engineers to continuously push boundaries and advance the industry. For more information, please visit www.aaon.com.
ABOUT APPLIED DIGITAL
Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) develops, builds and operates next-generation data centers and cloud infrastructure. Different by design, the company's purpose-built facilities are engineered to unleash the power of accelerated compute and deliver secure, scalable and sustainable digital hosting, along with turnkey CSaaS and GPU-as-a-Service solutions. Backed by deep hyperscale expertise and a robust pipeline of available power, Applied Digital accommodates AI Factories and beyond to support the world's most exacting AI/ML, blockchain and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
Applied Digital Contact Information:
JSA
[email protected]
BASX Contact Information:
Christina Lattanzio
[email protected]
(918) 382 - 6597
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/basx-powers-advanced-cooling-innovation-for-applied-digitals-purpose-built-ai-data-center-campus-302494791.html
SOURCE AAON