HIVE Digital Technologies' stock surged over 7% after securing a $220 million AI infrastructure contract with Bell Canada and Cohere.
HIVE Digital Technologies Experiences Stock Surge Following AI Contract
HIVE Digital Technologies saw a stock increase of over 7% on Thursday after announcing a substantial $220 million GPU cloud contract with Bell Canada and AI firm Cohere. This deal, spanning three years, reflects HIVE's strategic pivot from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure.
The contract involves HIVE's BUZZ High Performance Computing subsidiary deploying 2,304 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs at Bell's data center in Merritt, British Columbia. This infrastructure is crucial for Cohere, which specializes in AI solutions for businesses and government agencies, allowing them to serve Canadian clients effectively.
Highlighting the importance of local data management, the term "sovereign AI" is relevant here, indicating AI operations that utilize infrastructure within Canada. The Canadian government has committed over $2 billion to enhance domestic AI computing capabilities, including a $240 million investment in Cohere, making this contract pivotal for the initiative.
Cohere's recent merger with Germany's Aleph Alpha, which values the combined entity at approximately $20 billion, positions it as a key player in foundational AI technologies. This partnership with Bell has been ongoing since July 2025, with the new contract providing essential computing resources for their collaborative efforts.
“Canada was at the forefront of modern artificial intelligence... this collaboration with Bell and Cohere marks a pivotal moment,” stated Frank Holmes, executive chairman of HIVE Digital Technologies.
For HIVE, which reported $278.3 million in Bitcoin mining revenue last quarter, this contract marks a significant milestone in its transition that began in 2022. The company has been reallocating GPU resources from crypto mining and has secured additional GPUs through a deal with Dell. Its efforts mirror those of other firms like Keel Infrastructure, which is also shifting focus away from mining.
While crypto mining revenues can be volatile, the demand for AI computation is surging, particularly among government clients who are opting for multi-year contracts at fixed rates. HIVE anticipates that once the deployment is operational, expected between late 2026 and early 2027, it will generate around $70 million in new annual recurring revenue, alongside $35 million from existing GPU operations. Overall, HIVE's high-performance computing revenue is projected to exceed $100 million.
Additionally, HIVE is planning a larger 320-megawatt AI data center in the Greater Toronto Area, which could host over 100,000 Nvidia GPUs at full capacity. This facility is expected to generate approximately $360 million in annual recurring revenue, contributing to a broader goal of reaching $660 million in annualized high-performance computing revenue by the end of 2028.
