The great pivot of crypto firms switching to serve AI customers – whether hosting customer hardware or launching their own GPU clouds – continues unabated.
A number of crypto firms have acquired firms to help further their moves into the AI space, while others are looking to build new facilities set to host GPU infrastructure.
Bit Digital acquires Canada’s Enovum, moves into colocation
Crypto firm Bit Digital has acquired a colocation data center in Canada and aims to move into the colo space. It has also secured a GPU hosting contract with a cloud gaming company.
Bit Digital has acquired Enovum, a Canadian data center operator, for CA$62.8 million (US$46m). The company said the all-cash deal – which closed in October – enables Bit Digital to offer new service offerings such as colocation and on-demand computing to complement its existing GPU offerings.
As well as offering colocation and cloud services, the company will host its own GPUs in the facility.
Sam Tabar, Bit Digital’s CEO, said: “We are thrilled to announce a transformational acquisition for Bit Digital. Vertical integration on the HPC side has been a priority for Bit Digital and we believe we were able to achieve this goal at an attractive price.”
Launched in 2020, Enovum operates a 70,000 sq ft (6,500 sqm), 4MW facility in Montreal, which is leased through 2036 with two five-year extension options. It is fully leased to more than a dozen customers. The site can reportedly expand up to 187,500 sq ft (17,400 sqm) and 24MW.
Bit Digital said Enovum also has a development pipeline of 288MW, including 93MW currently under LOI with respective landlords.
All sites are in major metropolitan areas and in general will be designed to accommodate direct-to-chip liquid cooling. Immediate-term plans include bringing approximately 8MW online by the end of 2Q 2025 for approximately US$50m of capex
Taber added: “Following this acquisition and contemplating our expansion program, we believe Bit Digital will be well positioned to accommodate inference workloads. In tandem with the buildout of our data center footprint, we will continue to invest in our GPU-as-a-service business, with the two units coalescing to establish a formidable player in the HPC industry.”
BitDigital has Bitcoin mining operations located in the US (New York, Kentucky, and Texas), Canada, and Iceland (x2).
Like many cryptofirms, BitDigital is pivoting to GPU hosting amid an ongoing capacity crunch. The company this month signed an HPC deal with gaming company Boosteroid.
Bit Digital has finalized a purchase order for the initial 300 GPUs under the deal. The initial purchase will include GPU servers based on AMD EPYC 4th Gen CPUs and RX7900XT GPUs, customized by ASUS and AMD for Boosteroid.
Bit Digital expects the GPUs to be delivered to respective data centers across the US and begin earning revenue by the end of November 2024. The agreement provides the cloud gaming firm the option to expand in increments of 100 servers, up to 50,000 servers.
Boosteroid bills itself as the world's third-largest cloud gaming provider, with a GPU-based infrastructure network spanning 22 data centers and 10 more expected to launch by the end of 2024.
Revolve Labs looks to pivot to AI
The Minnesota Star Tribune reports Revolve Labs is also looking to pivot away from crypto and into the AI space.
Revolve, formerly known as Bit49, currently operates a 20MW cryptomine facility in Glencoe, McLeod County, Minnesota, that opened in 2022.
The Star-Tribune reports the company is looking to invest $60 million in a new AI data center campus at the site as part of a pivot. The plan would include the purchase of a 6-acre parcel of land from Seneca Foods Corp., on the west side of the city.
The company would “phase out our current site and move everything over to the new site,” according to Jeff St. Onge, senior operations manager at Revolve Labs. The new site could see one or two buildings developed.
Glencoe Planning and Industrial Commission recommended approval of the rezoning request last week. It is set to go before the city council this week.
TeraWulf plans HPC push
TeraWulf, another crypto company, is also looking to expand into AI services. The company recently said it is deploying HPC hosting infrastructure at its Lake Mariner site in New York. The initiative is known as Wulf Compute.
The company has completed a 2.5 MW HPC/AI proof-of-concept project (known as Wulf Den) designed to accommodate current and next-gen GPU technology.
Construction of CB-1, a 20MW HPC hosting facility with Tier III-grade redundancy features and liquid cooling, is on schedule for completion in Q1 2025. Preparations for CB-2, a 50MW HPC hosting facility, are also progressing for a Q2 2025 delivery. The company was granted permission for the two buildings over the summer.
TeraWulf has been building out capacity at Lake Mariner since it raised $215m across two funding rounds in 2022. It recently completed the fourth cryptomine facility at the 500MW site, with a fifth due next year. Last month the company entered into a new 35-year ground lease, with a 45-year extension option, for its Lake Mariner facility In New York. The agreement expands the company's land area from 107 acres to 157 acres and extends the lease term up to a total of 80 years.
Russia’s BitRiver to further AI with data center build-out
Russian crypto firm BitRiver has partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to build data centers for AI across Russia and other markets.
The companies will jointly implement projects to “introduce artificial intelligence (AI) technology, increase Russia's share in the global computing power market, and build data centers in the BRICS countries.”
The cooperation between RDIF and BitRiver is aimed at “realizing opportunities for the construction of data centers in the BRICS countries.”
Founded in 2017, BitRiver says its portfolio currently includes 21 operating data centers in Russia totaling more than 500MW and another 10 facilities under construction. The company said the demand for AI opens up “significant opportunities.”
BitRiver has previously partnered with Gazprom Nrft to deploy data centers at oil fields – currently totaling 12MW. It has also partnered with En+ Group for a 30MW joint venture at hydroelectric plants.
Edgemode enters AI data center space with Synthesis buy
Edgemode, another cryptocurrency mining firm, recently announced plans to acquire the operations and assets of Synthesis Analytics AB, marking its “entry into the AI data center colocation industry.”
The company said the deal, set to complete before the end of 2024, includes a 20,000 sqm freehold site in Marviken, Sweden, with 20MW power capacity. A total of 45MW of sites have been secured for immediate development.
Established in 2017, Synthesis has developed several data center modules utilizing proprietary immersion cooling, ranging from an 182kW rack module to a 3.27MW containerized pod, as well as an 11MW cube concept.
Edgemode was acquired by Fourth Wave Energy in 2022.
In other crypto news:
– Cryptomining services firm Blockware is offering a data center in Louisiana as up for sale. Located in Baton Rouge, the 20,847 sq ft facility offers 7MW. Reportedly built by AT&T for $100 million, the facility is on sale for $7 million.
– Dataprana has broken ground on its 30MW data center outside Houston in La Marque, Texas.
– Cathedra Bitcoin has energized the final 15MW of capacity at its North Dakota Bitcoin mining data center, marking the completion of the full 60MW facility in which Cathedra is a partner. Cathedra now owns and manages 45MW and 95MW of data center capacity for Bitcoin mining, respectively, across six locations in the US.
– Cipher Mining has signed option agreements to acquire the recently announced three sites in West and North Texas (x2) from Juvo Energy. The three sites are adjacent to transmission assets and in the final stages of approval for interconnection, with 500MW targeted capacity per site. Cipher will be able to exercise the option in the next 24 months to acquire the sites, including 580 acres of land to be either leased or purchased. The company said the sites are suitable for both HPC and bitcoin mining data centers.
