HIVE Signs $30M GPU Cloud Contracts to Expand Canada AI Data Center
HIVE Digital (NASDAQ: HIVE)’s high-performance computing subsidiary has signed $30 million in customer contracts as the bitcoin mining firm accelerates its push into AI cloud services.
The agreements, announced Friday by BUZZ High Performance Computing, represent total contract value over two-year fixed terms and are tied to performance obligations and deployment milestones.
The contracts underpin the initial deployment of 504 liquid-cooled Dell server-based GPUs at HIVE’s Canada West facility in Manitoba. The AI-optimized cluster is expected to come online during the quarter ending March 31, 2026.
HIVE, listed on Nasdaq and the TSX, has historically operated as a Bitcoin mining infrastructure provider. The company has been repositioning itself as a dual-focus operator spanning both crypto “hashrate services” and high-performance computing through its BUZZ platform.
Based on executed contracts and current pricing assumptions, management said the initial 504-GPU phase is expected to generate roughly $15 million in annual recurring revenue once fully operational. If deployment proceeds as planned, total annualized revenue attributable to HIVE’s HPC segment could increase from about $20 million currently to approximately $35 million, according to company estimates. Those projections are subject to capital spending, operating costs and customer utilization levels.
The announcement forms part of a broader expansion strategy. Chief Executive Aydin Kilic said the company aims to scale its GPU AI cloud business toward about $140 million in annual recurring revenue over the next year, subject to market conditions and successful infrastructure rollouts. HIVE previously outlined plans to deploy 2,000 AI-optimized GPUs at its Canada West site this year.
To support the buildout, HIVE expects to incur capital expenditures related to GPU purchases and upgrades to electrical and cooling infrastructure, along with ongoing costs for power, hosting, staffing and network services.
Executive Chairman Frank Holmes said Tier-I data centers typically used for Bitcoin mining can cost roughly $1 million per megawatt of infrastructure, while Tier-III facilities designed for advanced GPU clusters require significantly higher capital intensity due to premium hardware, redundant power systems and advanced cooling. He cited industry benchmarks suggesting that a comparable, fully self-funded Tier-III facility could require around $70 million in capital expenditures, depending on conditions.
HIVE said it is relying in part on vendor financing arrangements for GPUs and strategic Tier-III data center partnerships to reduce upfront capital requirements, rather than fully self-funding the build.
BUZZ also highlighted partnerships with Dell and Bell Canada and said its network architecture recently received a Bronze rating in SemiAnalysis’ ClusterMAX report.
The Canada West launch expands BUZZ’s footprint within Canada, where the company said it sees demand for sovereign AI compute capacity to serve domestic and international workloads. The new contracts mark one of HIVE’s largest disclosed commercial commitments in its HPC segment to date, as the company seeks to diversify beyond its legacy cryptocurrency mining operations.
