BUZZ HPC signs $220 million GPU contract: HIVE's strategic move in the era of AI infrastructure
BUZZ HPC, a subsidiary of HIVE Digital Technologies, has signed a three-year contract to provide cloud GPU services to Bell Canada and Cohere. The deal is valued at approximately $220 million. This event marks another stage in HIVE's diversification, a company traditionally associated with Bitcoin mining but now actively expanding its presence in the high-performance computing (HPC) segment for artificial intelligence.
Under the contract, BUZZ HPC will deploy 2,304 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell graphics processors at the Bell AI Fabric facility located in British Columbia, Canada. The infrastructure launch is scheduled for late 2026 to early 2027. Once fully operational, this contract is expected to generate approximately $70 million in annual recurring revenue, more than doubling HIVE's current figure of $35 million.
The choice of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell architecture is no coincidence: these are some of the most modern and energy-efficient chips for AI tasks, which is critically important for Canada with its high electricity tariffs. For HIVE, this step signifies a transformation from a pure miner into a hybrid operator capable of serving both blockchain networks and corporate clients in the AI sector.
My expert analysis: The contract with Bell Canada and Cohere is not just a financial deal but a strategic signal to the market. HIVE demonstrates that infrastructure originally built for mining can be easily adapted to the needs of the AI industry. However, it is worth noting that the launch only in 2026 carries risks: by that time, competition in the cloud GPU services segment could significantly increase, and prices for computing power rental could decline. Nevertheless, for long-term investors, this confirms that HIVE is thinking years ahead, rather than chasing short-term gains from Bitcoin's volatility.