Hive shares jump after 320 MW AI gigafactory plan in GTA

Hive Digital shares rose about 26%, trading near $3.39 and briefly reaching $3.92, after its subsidiary Buzz High Performance Computing announced plans to build a 320-megawatt artificial intelligence gigafactory in the Greater Toronto Area.

Hive described the site as an AI Gigafactory with roughly 320 MW of utility capacity, which the company said is enough to power at least 200,000 average homes. The facility is planned to support fully vertically integrated AI supercomputers. Hive expects the site to begin operations in the second half of next year and estimates construction will require about 800 workers. The project is estimated to cost C$3.5 billion (about $2.55 billion).

At 320 MW, the new facility would raise Hive’s total global power capacity to about 850 MW; the company is currently using roughly 450 MW to run existing data centers. Hive reported it has sufficient land and power to host facilities that could support around 130,000 graphics processing units. The design includes closed-loop cooling systems intended to limit water consumption.

Frank Holmes, Hive and Buzz executive chairman, described the project as “sovereign AI infrastructure that turns Canadian intelligence into Canadian dominance.”

Hive began shifting away from pure Bitcoin mining in 2022 and has been building high-performance computing operations alongside its digital-asset business. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the company reported $88.2 million in revenue from mining digital assets, up from $26.6 million a year earlier, and $4.8 million in high-performance computing revenue versus $2.5 million a year earlier.

Hive’s Bitcoin holdings have fallen. As of Dec. 31 the company reported holding 481 Bitcoin, compared with 2,805 a year earlier.

The company recently issued nearly $2 billion of preferred shares tied to its Stretch (STRC) product, which carries an 11.5% annual dividend. The company reported that proceeds from the issuance helped fund recent purchases of digital assets.

Public concern over data center growth has increased in parts of North America because of their large power use and potential effects on local electricity rates. Hive highlighted the facility’s lower water footprint and other technical measures intended to address resource use and said the Ontario site will expand its onshore AI capacity.