- Bitfarm is moving from mining legacy coins to hosting large AI infrastructure powered by Nvidia
- Massive power reserves give the company unusual leverage to access AI workloads
- AI Pivot Follows Significant Financial Losses Driven by Volatility in Digital Asset Markets
Bitfarm, a major Bitcoin mining company with twelve facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency operations, has announced plans to completely abandon crypto mining by 2027 and move to AI data center services.
It currently has 341 megawatts of live capacity, which it says can support large-scale deployment of server racks such as Nvidia’s GB300 NVL72 units.
The company says having an existing electricity infrastructure allows it to start expanding without having to engage in lengthy negotiations with local authorities and electricity suppliers.
Bitfarm’s existing energy capacity gives it an advantage
This existing infrastructure gives it an advantage over hyperscalers who would face constraints in acquiring additional electrical capacity.
Some claim that other companies, including large technology companies, have high-end crypto mining GPUs in stock, but do not have adequate data center shells to deploy them.
Bitfarm believes its current assets lower barriers to entry as it converts its facilities to handle AI workloads rather than cryptocurrency mining tasks.
The company converted a $300 million Macquarie credit facility into financing that will support the Panther Creek, Pennsylvania, data center, which could grow to at least 350 megawatts.
This project is part of a larger pipeline estimated at 1.3 gigawatts, which the company says could give it a significant position in the AI data center industry.
It also plans to convert its Washington facilities to support Nvidia hardware under a GPU-as-a-service model using liquid cooling.
“We continue to execute on our HPC/AI infrastructure development strategy with a fully funded supply chain and plan to convert our Washington site to support Nvidia GB300s with state-of-the-art liquid cooling,” Ben Gagnon, CEO of Bitfarm, said in a statement to Decrypt.
“While it represents less than 1% of our total developable portfolio, we believe that converting our sole Washington location to GPU-as-a-Service could potentially produce higher net operating income than we have ever generated with Bitcoin mining.”
The company claims that the potential revenue from this single site could exceed the revenue generated during its history of Bitcoin mining operations.
The move follows a $46 million loss in the third quarter, driven in part by Bitcoin’s volatility and lower-than-expected performance of its latest mining rigs, which led to a reduction in hashrate projections.
Although Bitcoin has recently reached record highs, fluctuating profitability has created operational instability.
The company change also comes amid allegations involving GPUs worth hundreds of millions of dollars used in cryptocurrency mining as part of tax evasion investigations, highlighting the ongoing controversy within the industry.
If the AI sector experiences a downturn, companies that spend billions on specialized infrastructure could face significant losses.
Via Tom’s Hardware
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