Northern Data Invests $360 Million in GPUs for Integration with AI and Cloud Computing

Northern Data, a German data centre and Bitcoin mining operator, has reportedly invested $360 million in GPUs to improve the quality of its cloud computing services, as reported by CryptoPotato. This action signifies an increasing incorporation of Bitcoin miners into the AI sector, wherein industry companies can leverage economies of scale and pre-existing infrastructure. Taiga Cloud, an AI-focused subsidiary of Northern Data, issued a press release on Wednesday announcing the acquisition. The 330 million euro investment secured 384 cabinets of HPE Cray XD supercomputers for the organisation, each of which was outfitted with an estimated 8,200 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs.

Customers of Taiga Cloud will have the opportunity to utilise HPE technology specifically designed for generative AI advancements. This technology offers the power and scalability of a supercomputer, which is essential for the expanding market of AI workloads that are computationally intense. This investment follows a September purchase by Northern Data of 10,000 NVIDIA cloud GPUs, facilitated by Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world. Tether furnished Northern Data with a $609 million debt financing facility earlier this month. Tether owns a portion of the company. In addition, Northern Data asserts that its AI cloud infrastructure is entirely carbon neutral, thereby mitigating energy-related issues that impact both data centres and Bitcoin miners, as well as AI. Northern Data initiated construction of a 30MW mining facility in North Dakota earlier this month.

Demand for NVIDIA's semiconductor processors has skyrocketed since ChatGPT and OpenAI kickstarted rapid AI expansion late last year; the company's stock is up 226 percent year to date. Bitcoin mining companies, which already possess the requisite data centres, cooling infrastructure, and cost-effective energy sources to sustain a large-scale cloud computing operation, are among the numerous enthusiastic clients. The sole component that is absent is the processors themselves, given that the ASICs used for Bitcoin mining are not well-suited for other tasks. In June, public mining company Iris Energy declared its intention to reestablish its high-performance computing data centre strategy. Similarly, HIVE Digital commenced the conversion of its obsolete Ethereum mining machines for the same objective subsequent to the Merge. HPC services are considerably more profitable per unit of energy utilised than BTC mining, which is more compatible with balancing energy infrastructure and utilising renewable energy sources, according to experts.