👩🍳 How we use AI at Tech in Asia, thoughtfully and responsibly.
🧔♂️ A friendly human may check it before it goes live. More news here
🧔♂️ A friendly human may check it before it goes live. More news here
Bitcoin miner Hive to spend $58m on Toronto AI hub
Hive Digital Technologies, a San Antonio-based bitcoin miner and data center operator, said on May 18 that it will spend US$58 million on 25 acres in Toronto to build an AI data center, sending its Nasdaq-listed shares up as much as 40%.
The company said the site, bought through subsidiary BUZZ High Performance Computing for US$46 million and US$12 million across two parcels, could support about 320 megawatts of power and more than 100,000 GPUs when fully equipped.
The move adds to a wider shift by crypto miners into AI infrastructure, and follows Hive’s US$115 million fundraise two weeks earlier for more data center and GPU capacity across Canada, Sweden, and Paraguay.
🔗 Source: CoinDesk
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
HIVE funds its AI buildout with cash from crypto mining
- HIVE’s Toronto land purchase fits a two-part plan. Cash flow from its Bitcoin hashrate services business helps pay for growth in BUZZ High Performance Computing 1.
- That approach ties HIVE’s crypto mining fleet to its AI compute push. The fleet reached an installed base of 25 exahash per second (EH/s), a measure of Bitcoin mining computing power, by December 31, 2025 1.
- BUZZ has customer agreements worth about US$30 million in total contract value across two-year fixed terms, subject to performance obligations and deployment milestones. Management is aiming for about US$140 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from its high-performance computing (HPC) graphics processing unit (GPU) AI cloud business over the next year, subject to market conditions and successful infrastructure deployment 2.
- HIVE also plans to turn existing Tier I Bitcoin mining facilities, a basic level of data center reliability, including one in New Brunswick, into Tier III+ data centers with more backup systems and uptime protections for AI and high-performance computing 3.
AI data center growth runs into local pushback
- As HIVE expands, data center developers face more resistance from local communities over heavy power and water use.
- In 2025, U.S. state legislatures introduced more than 190 bills aimed at data centers. That was about nine times the number introduced in 2024 4.
- One driver is strain on utilities and the environment. A single data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, equal to the use of more than 16,000 average U.S. households, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 5.
- Community opposition blocked or delayed an estimated US$98 billion in data center projects between March and June 2025 5.
- Federal moves to speed permits do not overrule state permitting rules, zoning laws, or energy regulations. HIVE and other developers still face state and local barriers 6.
