Another cryptomining company is pivoting to AI.
Ault Alliance, which owns Sentinum, is to pivot to AI, rename the company, and divest its various non-data center assets.
CleanSpark, another cryptomining firm, is to develop a 30MW cryptomine facility in Wyoming and is acquiring Bitcoin mining company Griid Infrastructure.
Ault Alliance pivots to AI
Ault Alliance this week announced plans to “dramatically reshape its future” and pivot to focus on AI data centers and divest its other assets.
The company intends to change its name to Hyperscale Data, Inc. and its ticker symbol to GPUS. This change is expected to occur in September 2024.
The newly-named Hyperscale Data will focus on its data center assets in Michigan and Montana.
Ault was previously a diversified holding company and has held investments in oil exploration, crane services, defense/aerospace, industrial, automotive, medical/biopharma, consumer electronics, hotel operations, and textiles.
Sentinum, Inc., formerly known as BitNile, Inc., was the group’s data center unit. Sentinum offers colocation, cloud, and cryptomine hosting services.
The company currently operates a 28MW data center in Michigan. Acquired in May 2022, the Michigan site spans 617,000 sq ft (57,320 sqm), offering 28MW of IT capacity, though it reportedly has the ability to scale up to 300MW. The company broke ground on a 20MW Montana site last year, and has a second in the state.
Earlier this year, Sentinum signed its first non-mining colocation/hosting agreement. Details weren’t provided, but Ault Alliance CEO William B. Horne said the customer’s power requirements only represent a “small amount” of its Michigan data center’s total available capacity.
The company is reportedly in discussions with other potential clients that have expressed an interest in acquiring a “significant amount” of the currently available additional capacity.
At the time Ault said said it was in the process of reallocating deployed infrastructure to support HPC and AI use cases, and is moving a portion of its Bitcoin mining operations to the company’s Montana site.
BitNile Holdings, previously known as Ault Global Holdings, DPW Holdings, Inc. before that, and Digital Power Corporation before that, used to design and manufacture power system solutions. The company began developing cryptocurrency mining hardware around 2017, and subsequently launched a crypto mining subsidiary Super Crypto Mining (renamed to Digital Farms Inc. in 2019) before pivoting to focus on crypto.
A number of crypto companies are pivoting to AI; many are hosting GPUs for AI cloud providers as well as launching their own GPU-based AI clouds. The likes of Hive, Crusoe, Hut 8, Core Scientific, Soluna, Ark Energy, Northern Data, Earth Wind & Power, and others are all pivoting to AI.
CleanSpark to develop cryptomine data center in Wyoming, acquires Griid
Cryptomining firm CleanSpark this week said it had executed 75MW of power contracts and completed the acquisition of its first Bitcoin mining site in Wyoming.
The company first announced plans to acquire two sites in Wyoming for $18.75 million earlier this year.
The Cheyenne site has power capacity of 30MW and is planned to operate as a fully immersion-cooled site. Groundbreaking is expected to happen soon for a launch later in 2024.
The company said it is working to expand the available power at this site to increase operational capacity. It is also progressing on the close of a second site in Wyoming which will offer an additional 45MW.
CleanSpark portfolio comprises twelve data centers in Georgia, three in Mississippi, one in Wyoming, as well as colocations in Tennessee and New York. The Wyoming site will be the company’s second all-immersion facility.
The company acquired three Bitcoin mining sites in Mississippi in February this year and announced plans to acquire five sites in Georgia in June.
June also saw CleanSpark acquire cryptomining firm Griid Infrastructure for $155 million. The deal will see 20MW of capacity immediately allocated to CleanSpark. CleanSpark also provided Griid with a $5 million working capital loan and a pay-down bridge loan of approximately $50.9 million.
Founded in 2018, Griid has 68MW of capacity across four facilities in Watertown, New York; and Limestone, Maynardville, and Lenoir City, Tennessee.
A 60MW site in Jackson, Tennessee is due live later this year. As well as a pipeline of 436MW by the end of the year, Griid said it has a long-term pipeline totaling 1.3GW.
