Bitcoin miner and artificial intelligence (AI) data center developer Gryphon Digital Mining is to develop a natural-gas powered facility in Canada.

The company has agreed to purchase an 850-acre industrial site with access to a natural gas supply from Captus Energy in Southern Alberta.

The site's initial generation capacity is 100MW, which the company claims can be scaled to 4GW. By the end of 2026, it is expected to produce 130MW.

Gryphon plans to develop an on-site AI and high-performance computing data center directly powered by natural gas.

The acquisition cost an estimated CAD$27 million ($18.7m), including CAD $3 million ($2 million) in restricted shares for the incoming Captus management team. The acquisition is expected to close in or before April 2025.

"We believe that this acquisition represents a transformative moment for Gryphon as we aggressively expand into the AI/HPC infrastructure market. With 850 acres of industrial land in Southern Alberta and the potential to scale to 4GW of power capacity, this site positions us to capitalize on the surging demand from AI compute requirements,” said Steve Gutternman, CEO of Gryphon.

The site has access to a grid connection, non-potable water resources, and dual high-speed fiber connection providers. It also includes carbon capture and sequestration capabilities.

“The combination of dual natural gas supply, on-site carbon sequestration, and abundant water access makes it one of the few locations in North America with all the critical elements needed for large-scale AI computing,” Gutterman said.

According to the company, at full capacity, assuming $1.5 million of revenue per megawatt, the site could generate more than $5 billion of annual revenue.

Gryphon was founded in 2021 and has several Bitcoin mining operations across the US. In August, it acquired up to 2.9MW of gas flare Bitcoin mining operations in Louisana.

Data center operators and crypto miners are increasingly looking towards natural gas as a crucial power source for their operations. This week, it was reported that Serverfarm is seeking to develop a new natural gas-powered data center in Georgia, US.

Major energy companies have also been getting in on the act, with multinational oil and gas major ExxonMobil revealing plans for a new 1.5GW natural gas-fired power plant dedicated to powering data centers last year.