Shares of Hive Digital (HIVE) and Bitfarms (BITF) rose more than 10% on Tuesday morning, leading a market-wide rally among bitcoin miners pivoting toward AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data center infrastructure, according to reporting by The Block.
The surge occurred as Bitcoin climbed above $76,100 to reach a two-month high. The rally follows a broader trend where mining companies are repurposing their electricity-intensive infrastructure to meet the surging global demand for AI compute power.
In a CNBC interview last month, Matthew Sigel of VanEck noted that miners are aggressively diversifying their capacity to serve the AI market. He observed that these companies still trade at a significant discount to other data center peers on a market cap-to-megawatt basis, adding, "These miners were early to identify they were sitting on a gold mine in terms of the cost of capital they can earn by pivoting."
Scaling AI workloads
Hive Digital has been steadily expanding its AI and data center capacity. The company recently launched a GPU cluster in Paraguay through its BUZZ high-performance computing unit.
Hive is utilizing its existing hydro-powered infrastructure in Paraguay, which includes roughly 300 megawatts of capacity, as a foundation for potential AI expansion through 2027. The company is also phasing down parts of its legacy bitcoin mining operations, such as scaling back ASIC machine operations in Sweden, to redirect capital toward GPU-powered capacity in Canada.
Bitfarms is pursuing a different strategy through a wholesale transition. The company recently rebranded to Keel Infrastructure (NASDAQ: KEEL) and is adopting a landlord-style business model. This approach involves leasing power-secured data center capacity to hyperscalers and large-scale compute customers.
Bitfarms is currently funding a 2.2 GW AI pipeline with $520 million in liquidity as part of this strategic shift, the report noted.