- Bitfarm is switching from mining legacy coins to hosting a large Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure
- Massive power reserves give the company unusual leverage to enter AI workloads
- AI pivot follows steep financial losses driven by volatile digital asset markets
Bitfarm, a major Bitcoin mining company with twelve facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency operations, has announced plans to abandon crypto mining entirely by 2027 and switch to AI data center services.
It currently has a powered capacity of 341 megawatts, which it claims can support large-scale deployment of server racks such as Nvidia’s GB300 NVL72 units.
The company states that having existing power infrastructure makes it possible to start scaling without going into 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, which reportedly face constraints in acquiring additional power capacity.
There are claims that other companies, including large tech companies, have advanced crypto mining GPUs in stock but lack sufficient data center shells to deploy them.
Bitfarm believes its current assets reduce barriers to entry as it converts facilities to handle AI workloads rather than cryptocurrency mining tasks.
The company has converted a $300 million Macquarie debt facility into financing that will support the Panther Creek, Pennsylvania data center, which could reach at least 350 megawatts.
This project is part of a broader pipeline estimated at 1.3 gigawatts that the company says could elevate it to a significant position in the AI data center industry.
It also plans to convert its Washington facility to support Nvidia hardware under a GPU-as-a-service model using liquid cooling.
“We continue to execute our HPC/AI infrastructure development strategy with a fully funded supply chain and plan to convert our Washington site to support Nvidia GB300s with advanced liquid cooling,” Bitfarm CEO Ben Gagnon said in a statement to Decrypt.
“Despite being less than 1% of our total developable portfolio, we believe the conversion of just our Washington site to GPU-as-a-service could potentially produce more net operating income than we’ve ever generated from Bitcoin mining.”
The company claims that the revenue potential from this single site could exceed the revenue generated through its history of Bitcoin mining.
The move follows a reported loss of $46 million in the third quarter, driven in part by Bitcoin volatility and lower-than-expected performance of its latest mining rig, which led to reduced hashrate forecasts.
Although Bitcoin reached record highs recently, fluctuating profitability created operational instability.
The company’s shift also comes amid allegations involving hundreds of millions of dollars in GPUs used in crypto mining during tax evasion investigations, highlighting the ongoing controversy within the industry.
If the AI industry experiences a downturn, companies committing billions to specialized infrastructure could face significant losses.
Via Tom’s hardware
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