- Bitfarm moves from mining legacy coins to hosting large AI infrastructure powered by Nvidia
- Huge reserves of power give the company unusual capabilities to perform artificial intelligence tasks.
- AI U-turn Follows Sharp Financial Losses Caused by Volatile Digital Asset Markets
Bitfarm, a major Bitcoin mining company with twelve facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency operations, has announced plans to completely phase out cryptocurrency mining by 2027 and shift to artificial intelligence-powered data centers.
It currently has an active capacity of 341 megawatts, which it claims can support large-scale deployment of server racks such as NvidiaGB300 NVL72 units.
The company says its existing energy infrastructure allows it to begin scaling without 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 are reportedly facing constraints in acquiring additional power capacity.
There are claims that other companies, including large tech firms, have high-end cryptocurrency. GPUs for mining are available, but there are no adequate data center shells to deploy them.
Bitfarm believes its current assets are lowering barriers to entry as it converts capacity to handle artificial intelligence workloads rather than cryptocurrency mining tasks.
The company converted a $300 million Macquarie credit facility into financing that will support a data center in Panther Creek, Pennsylvania, that could have a capacity of at least 350 megawatts.
The project is part of a broader pipeline that has an estimated capacity of 1.3 gigawatts, which the company says could catapult it into prominence in the artificial intelligence space. data center industry.
The company also plans to retool its Washington plant to support Nvidia's GPU-as-a-service hardware using liquid cooling.
“We continue to execute on our HPC/AI infrastructure strategy with a fully funded supply chain and plan to transform our Washington DC site to support the Nvidia GB300 with advanced liquid cooling,” Bitfarm CEO Ben Gagnon said in a statement to Decrypt.
“While this is less than 1% of our total development portfolio, we believe that converting just our Washington DC site to GPU as a Service has the potential to generate greater net operating income than we have ever generated from Bitcoin mining.”
The company claims that the potential revenue from this single site could exceed the revenue generated in the entire history of Bitcoin mining operations.
The move followed a reported loss of $46 million in the third quarter, driven in part by Bitcoin volatility and lower-than-expected performance from recent mining rigs, which led to lower hashrate forecasts.
Although Bitcoin recently reached an all-time high, fluctuations in profitability have led to operational instability.
The company's changes also come amid hundreds of millions of dollars in allegations involving graphics processors used in computer games. crypto mining as part of an investigation into tax evasion, highlighting ongoing controversies in the industry.
If there is a downturn in the AI industry, companies that have invested billions in specialized infrastructure could suffer significant losses.
By using Tom's Equipment
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