HIVE signs $350 million AI cloud deal to power 2,016-GPU cluster

BUZZ HPC, the AI cloud unit of HIVE Digital Technologies, signed a five-year, $350 million GPU services agreement with an investment-grade customer, adding $70 million in annualized revenue.

"Using proceeds from our June 2026 0% convertible bond, we are delivering on our promises to bring this second, long-term large GPU cluster deal forward," Aydin Kilic, president and chief executive officer of HIVE, said.

The cluster comprises 2,016 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs in GB300 NVL72 rack-scale systems, interconnected with NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking and VAST Data's storage platform. It will operate at the Bell AI Fabric facility in Merritt, British Columbia, powered by 100 percent renewable hydroelectric energy with closed-loop liquid cooling. Deployment is expected in calendar Q4, at which point HIVE's HPC/AI daily revenue will reach about $500,000.

The contract brings BUZZ HPC's total annualized revenue to about $180 million, comprising $35 million in active revenue and $145 million contracted through Q4 2026, against a year-end target of $200 million. HIVE expects capital expenditures of about $185 million, offset by a $35 million upfront deposit, and will retain ownership of the NVIDIA infrastructure after the five-year term.

Contract Economics Lean on Debt-Financed GPUs

HIVE will fund the deployment through the upfront deposit, proceeds from its June 2026 zero-coupon convertible bond, and additional equipment financing. Kilic said the company is using debt to lever GPU purchases, targeting a strong internal rate of return. The $185 million capital expenditure covers the accelerated computing cluster and associated hardware and service warranties.

The five-year term gives BUZZ HPC contracted revenue visibility while the company builds a portfolio serving Canadian sovereign AI requirements, global enterprises and international AI organizations. Executive Chairman Frank Holmes said HIVE has about 400 MW of capacity in Canada for Tier III data center development, with the potential to bring more than 120,000 GPUs online over the next two years.

A Miner's Pivot Toward Sovereign AI Compute

The agreement follows a $220 million, three-year sovereign AI GPU cloud contract with Bell AI Fabric and Cohere announced in June, and a planned 320 MW AI gigafactory in the Greater Toronto Area. HIVE, which mined 2,885 Bitcoin in fiscal 2026, is applying the same renewable-energy playbook used to scale its ASIC fleet to GPU-based AI infrastructure.

The Merritt deployment runs entirely on hydroelectric power with closed-loop direct liquid cooling that eliminates ongoing water consumption. The design follows NVIDIA's reference architecture for large-scale AI training and inference workloads.

The deal positions BUZZ HPC against hyperscalers and dedicated GPU cloud providers such as CoreWeave, which have dominated the market for rented Nvidia compute. HIVE's edge rests on renewable power and sovereign AI demand in Canada, where government and enterprise customers increasingly require domestic infrastructure.

HIVE shares, which have climbed about 40 percent over the past year, trade at roughly 2.6 times sales with a market value near CA$1 billion, according to Simply Wall St data. The contract, if fully deployed, would push HPC/AI daily revenue to about $500,000 by Q4, a step toward the $200 million ARR target. Investors will watch whether the company can convert its contracted pipeline into realized cash flow without further dilution, after shares outstanding rose 49 percent in the past year.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.