Critical IT Load

Critical IT load is the electrical power, measured in megawatts, that a data center can deliver to customers' IT equipment. That equipment includes servers, storage and network gear, and the figure excludes cooling, lighting and power-conversion losses. It is the headline unit for wholesale and AI leases: Applied Digital's Polaris Forge 1 is contracted for 400 MW of critical IT load, of which 250 MW was operational in October 2026. Because total facility power is higher by the PUE factor, a 100 MW critical load at a PUE of 1.3 draws about 130 MW from the grid. Operators sometimes quote grid or utility capacity instead, which can overstate usable capacity, so comparing sites requires checking which figure is being named.