Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure provider Core Scientific is planning a 72MW expansion of its data center in Denton, Texas.

The expansion will take place on the company’s 31-acre site, originally built in 2022. The facility currently operates 125MW of Bitcoin mining capacity, expandable to 300MW at full build-out.

Other specifications of the expansion have not been disclosed, but completion is expected by Q2 2024.

Adam Sullivan, CEO at Core Scientific, said: “Owning and controlling all of our infrastructure with access to ready power gives us the strategic optionality to expand our mining capacity, deploy upgrades to our proprietary mining technology stack, reallocate miners to optimize for efficiency and even flex to alternative forms of compute when such opportunities arise.”

The company added that the expansion program will deliver more than 20 additional exahash of mining capacity, for an average cost of $200,000 per megawatt.

Core Scientific has another Texas data center, located in Pecos, offering 71MW of capacity over a 100-acre site. The company says its Pecos site can scale up to 234MW.

The company has five other US data centers in North Dakota, Kentucky, Georgia, and North Carolina. Combined, Core Scientific says its facilities have a live supply of 745MW and 372MW of pipeline supply.

China-based Uminers break ground on data center in Ethiopia

Uniminers, another cryptomine data center provider, has announced it has broken ground on a data center in Ethiopia.

The facility is set to offer 100MW of IT capacity in its first phase, scheduled for completion in autumn 2024, and host approximately 24,000 high-performance ASIC miners, including models such as the Antminer S21, S21 Hydro, T21, and S19.

Other specifications, such as the location, have not been shared.

Batyr Hydyrov, president at Uniminers, said: “The increasing complexity of mining necessitates greater investment in robust equipment. The industrial-scale mining for extracting the remaining bitcoins has never been more pertinent.”

He added: “The battle for accessing sufficient electrical power is intensifying globally as the slowdown in miner sales worldwide is mainly due to scarcity of installation sites and available power capacity.”

The company said Ethiopia offers many geographical benefits, including its affordable, eco-friendly hydroelectric power. Plans are also in place for Uniminers to expand its footprint across Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

Headquartered in Guangzhou, China, and founded in 2017, Uminers has a total capacity of 90MW in data centers across Hong Kong, Oman, the UAE, the US, and Singapore.

Ethiopia has seen a recent spike in development, with Wingu.Africa, Red Fox, Sun Data World, and ScutiX all developing data centers in the country. Pan-African operator Raxio Data Centres also launched a new facility in Ethiopia in November last year.