In brief
- Hive Digital Technologies’ stock price jumped 26% on Monday, after touching its highest point this year, following the data center announcement.
- Hive’s subsidiary, Buzz High Performance Computing, is building a 320-megawatt (MW) artificial intelligence facility in the Greater Toronto Area.
- Billed as a "sovereign AI infrastructure" project, the facility is designed to keep data and processing power within Canada to foster domestic tech dominance.
Hive Digital Technologies’ stock price popped on Monday, touching its highest point of the year after the Bitcoin miner unveiled a massive data center buildout in Ontario, Canada.
The company’s shares changed hands around $3.39, a 26% increase on the day, according to Yahoo Finance. Shortly before Monday’s opening bell, Hive’s stock price soared to $3.92, temporarily extending gains beyond 35% year-to-date.
Hive reported that subsidiary Buzz High Performance Computing plans to construct an “AI Gigafactory” in the Greater Toronto Area, which will have roughly 320 megawatts (MW) of utility capacity—enough to power at least 200,000 average homes.
The firm, which began its strategic pivot away from being a pure-play Bitcoin miner in 2022, indicated the facility for artificial intelligence is expected to be one of Canada’s largest. The site will support fully vertically integrated AI supercomputers when fully built, Hive added.
In a statement, Hive and Buzz Executive Chairman Frank Holmes portrayed the company’s latest move as a way to accelerate Canada’s tech boom, providing “sovereign AI infrastructure that turns Canadian intelligence into Canadian dominance.”
Buzz expects its Ontario facility to come online in the second half of next year, which will likely necessitate 800 construction workers. In total, the buildout is expected to require roughly $3.5 billion Canadian dollars ($2.55 billion), eventually leading to the creation of highly skilled roles.
At the same time, Hive said Buzz’s facility is built in a way that is designed to minimize water usage, featuring closed-loop cooling systems. Across North America, local residents are increasingly pushing back against the proliferation of data centers, which have the potential to spike electricity rates due to their massive power needs.
At 320 MW, the Ontario site would bring Hive’s total power capacity to 850 MW globally. Currently, the company is using 450 MW to power data centers. With the resources, Hive said it has enough land and power to create facilities that support around 130,000 GPUs.
In the three-month period ended Dec. 31, Hive generated $88.2 million from mining digital assets compared to $26.6 million a year ago. High-performance computing revenue clocked in at $4.8 million and $2.5 million, respectively, representing a sliver of its overall business.
As Hive has embraced AI, the company has pared its Bitcoin holdings. As of Dec. 31, the company held 481 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, a sum recently valued at $36.7 million as the digital asset traded around $76,300, according to CoinGecko. A year ago, Hive controlled 2,805 Bitcoin, a cache worth $214.5 million today