HIVE Digital Technologies is Building Green Infrastructure for the AI Revolution

Aydin Kilic sees a future where powerful graphic processing units, running on renewable energy, fuel the AI revolution.

And that future is sooner than you think, he says.

Kilic is the president and CEO of HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd., a Vancouver-based digital infrastructure firm. HIVE got its start in 2017 as HIVE Blockchain Technologies—the world’s first publicly traded cryptocurrency mining company, with listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

In July 2023, after five years of mining Bitcoin and Ethereum, HIVE announced it was dropping “Blockchain” from its name. It rebranded as HIVE Digital Technologies to better represent its role in the emerging artificial intelligence sector, specifically GPU cloud.

As AI reaches critical mass, Kilic says his company is ready to be a leader in providing the computing technology AI requires.

“At a time when other firms are still trying to get their heads around the business possibilities of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, we understand this nascent industry and what it needs to thrive,” he says. “AI has massive computing requirements, and this is where you need hundreds, if not thousands, of GPUs to build and run these LLMs.”

As a pioneer in GPU-powered crypto mining, HIVE has deep experience running powerful servers across North America and around the world. The company has more than 38,000 Nvidia GPUs, surpassing the capacity of every other public crypto-mining company.

By the end of October 2023, HIVE anticipates having 3,200 GPUs operating in the HPC/AI space, representing eight times growth from its initial beta test of 400 GPUs.

“This is a major milestone toward our year-end target of realizing $15 million in annual run-rate revenue from this growing phase of our business,” Kilic says.

With an eye on the future and AI, HIVE will continue to mine Bitcoin—and unlike some of its competitors, the company remains committed to sustainable mining practices.

Its mining operations in Quebec, New Brunswick, Sweden and Iceland are in cool, dry climates—boosting energy efficiency. Its servers run on clean, low-cost hydroelectric and geothermal power.

“Pound for pound, we’re the most efficient crypto-miner in the game right now,” Kilic says. “That means we mine Bitcoin with high uptime, which translates into maximizing the Bitcoin produced with the hash rate capacity we have installed. Additionally, we are doing this as a green energy-focused miner, using hydro and geothermal electricity.”

HIVE has made significant progress in recycling its excess heat. In Quebec, HIVE’s 30 megawatt facility provides “waste” heat to a neighbouring swimming pool manufacturer, a 200,000-square-foot factory. Using a custom heat-exchange and transfer system, the warm air from the Bitcoin mining servers is transferred to heat the swimming pool factory.

“They don’t have to buy power from the grid,” Kilic says. “We have also partnered with a greenhouse developer in Sweden and they plan to construct an 80,000-square-foot greenhouse. Our 30 megawatt GPU facility in Boden, near the Arctic Pole, will provide heat energy used to grow these vegetables. When complete in 2024, the greenhouse will be able to produce more than 1,000 tons of fresh vegetables annually, all using excess heat from our facilities.

“HIVE continues to lead the way in green innovations.”

Learn more about HIVE Digital Technologies and the future of AI at hivedigitaltechnologies.com

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