Europe s largest crypto miner Northern Data is selling its bitcoin

• The company will reinvest the proceeds in high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

• The move reflects a broader trend among crypto miners to turn to AI as bitcoin mining margins shrink.

• Europe's largest bitcoin mining firm is bidding farewell to its mining days—and setting its sights on artificial intelligence (AI).

• Northern Data Group (NDG), once synonymous with dominance in crypto mining, has confirmed that it is selling Peak Mining for up to $200 million.

• This sale marks a decisive step towards NDG's complete transformation from a blockchain miner to an AI powerhouse.

• Northern Data will sell its BTC mining division.

• The agreement includes an upfront cash payment of $50 million and deferred payments of up to $150 million, linked to profit-sharing from the Texas mining site.

• Despite exiting mining, NDG plans to reuse the same infrastructure for data-intensive AI workloads—a move that could prove far more profitable.

• This transformation has been underway for NDG for years.

• After quietly signaling its intentions in late 2024, the company began restructuring its operations for early 2025—a time when Bitcoin mining profitability was beginning to decline due to high energy costs and April's halving event.

• This shift reflects a broader trend in the crypto industry, as miners are repurposing their power-hungry data centers to meet the growing demand for AI computing.

• AI workloads can generate 10 times more revenue per megawatt than Bitcoin mining, making them crucial for innovation as well as financial survival.

• NDG has played this game before.

• In 2022, it sold several Texas data centers to Riot Blockchain for $651 million, and a year later, acquired GPU specialist Decentric for $429 million.

• This deal gave it one of the world's largest GPU fleets—223,000 units strong—which is now perfectly suited for AI. A bet on AI's trillion-dollar boom.

• The company's transformation is already proving fruitful. NDG's AI and cloud revenue is projected to triple to over 200 million euros in 2024, and the company expects to generate another 150 million euros from AI services alone by early 2025.

• It is not alone in this transformation. Competitors like Core Scientific, Hut8, and Iris Energy have begun converting their mining operations into AI hosting facilities.

• Core Scientific has also signed a $3.5 billion deal with CoreWeave for AI infrastructure.

• For NDG, this sale is more than a business transaction—it's a sign of where the future lies.

• The company's $200 million exit from the mining business is, in effect, a way to join the trillion-dollar AI arms race.

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