HIVE Digital unveils massive $220 million GPU contract: betting on the cloud AI segment
A major player in Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC), HIVE Digital Technologies, has made a strategic breakthrough in the cloud GPU services segment. Its subsidiary, BUZZ HPC, has signed a three-year agreement with Bell Canada and Cohere valued at approximately $220 million. This contract marks not just a commercial success, but a clear diversification of the business towards high-margin AI workloads.
Deal Details and Infrastructure
Under the contract, BUZZ HPC will deploy 2,304 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell graphics processors at Bell AI Fabric facilities located in British Columbia, Canada. The infrastructure launch is scheduled for late 2026 to early 2027. The choice of this equipment is no coincidence: the Grace Blackwell architecture provides record energy efficiency for training and inference tasks of large language models (LLMs), which is critically important for partners like Cohere.
HIVE management estimates that this contract will increase annual recurring revenue (ARR) by approximately $70 million. For comparison, the company's current ARR stands at around $35 million. Thus, this represents more than a twofold increase in this key metric in the medium term.
Analysis of HIVE's Strategy
This move confirms my long-standing hypothesis: successful mining companies will transform into universal computing power providers. HIVE is not just selling Bitcoin hash rate but is monetizing its experience in managing energy-intensive data centers for the AI sector. The contract with Bell and Cohere is not a one-off deal but the creation of a long-term recurring cash flow that is less volatile than cryptocurrency mining revenues.
Cryptalist Expert Opinion: From my perspective, this deal is an indicator of a new era for mining giants. The shift from an ASIC-oriented model to a hybrid one (ASIC + GPU for HPC/AI) allows hedging risks associated with Bitcoin halving and price fluctuations. If HIVE successfully launches this project on time, its shares could see a significant valuation reassessment by institutional investors, who still perceive the company solely as a "miner." The cloud GPU market for AI will grow exponentially over the next 3-5 years, and HIVE is making the right bet.