Increasing Revenue Sources Amid AI Industry Resource Crunch
The AI industry’s current resource shortage boosts Bitcoin miners’ income sources and drives up their stock prices.
Northern Data’s IPO Plans
Europe’s largest cryptocurrency miner, Northern Data, intends to launch an initial public offering (IPO) for its subsidiary in the United States.
According to Bloomberg, Northern Data is in talks regarding the IPO of its subsidiary, aiming for a preliminary business valuation of up to $16 billion. This includes data centers with computational power and infrastructure for AI.
NASDAQ Listing Plans
Northern Data plans to list shares of its subsidiary, which combines cloud services Taiga and data centers Ardent, on NASDAQ in the first half of 2025.
Based in Frankfurt, Northern Data manages one of the world’s largest AI clusters. With support from Tether, issuer of the USDT stablecoin, it invested over $800 million in NVIDIA equipment, including the latest H100 chips suitable for AI tasks.
Transition Due to Ethereum’s Change
The decision stems from Ethereum’s shift to Proof of Stake (PoS), rendering A100M chips obsolete for mining due to the cryptocurrency’s algorithm change. By summer’s end, the miner will deploy 20,000 H100 chips, becoming a major AI computing provider in Europe.
Impact of AI Investments
The release of ChatGPT in 2022 spurred investments in AI models and startups, causing a severe shortage of data center space and GPUs. This pushed AI companies to collaborate with cryptocurrency miners, who possess significant computational power and infrastructure needed for processing large data volumes used in AI models.
Recent Industry Agreements
In early June, US mining company Core Scientific and cloud provider CoreWeave signed a $3.5 billion agreement. Core Scientific will supply CoreWeave with electricity for AI model training systems, yielding an estimated annual income of around $290 million.
Market Response and Growth
Northern Data’s stock surged 24% to $29.8 with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion following news of the IPO. In June, mining company stocks outpaced Bitcoin in growth. JPMorgan analysts reported a record $22.8 billion market capitalization for 14 US-listed Bitcoin miners, led by Core Scientific’s 98% stock surge. Meanwhile, Bitcoin itself fell by 6% during this period.
Additional Revenue Streams
The rising demand for electricity to sustain AI systems provides additional revenue for Bitcoin miners leasing infrastructure. Companies like Bit Digital, Iris Energy, Hive, and Hut 8 invest in specialized AI equipment, which they then sell or lease to clients.
