Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer has signed a long-term lease agreement worth up to $4.7 billion to supply computing capacity for artificial intelligence, highlighting how crypto miners are increasingly expanding beyond Bitcoin and into the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.
The company said it has entered into a 16-year lease to provide 121 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity from its Tydal data center in Norway.
The facility will be configured to run Nvidia GPU-powered artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, which require significantly more computing power than traditional applications.
Bitdeer keeps identity of AI customer under wraps #
Bitdeer said the customer is a subsidiary of Volta Infra, but did not disclose the tenant’s identity or clarify whether Volta will use the computing capacity itself or is leasing it on behalf of another company.
According to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, Volta’s $10 billion cloud computing agreement is with AI startup Anthropic, one of the leading developers of generative AI models and a company backed by Nvidia. Neither Bitdeer nor Volta has confirmed that report.
The agreement has not yet taken effect and still needs to satisfy customary closing conditions before becoming final.
To help secure the deal, affiliates of JPMorgan and another unnamed global financial institution are expected to issue approximately $1.3 billion in letters of credit.
These financial guarantees are designed to protect Bitdeer by ensuring it can recover payments if the tenant fails to meet its contractual obligations.
Bitdeer sees investor optimism #
Bitdeer shares climbed about 8 percent in early Nasdaq trading, reflecting optimism that the company is successfully diversifying its business beyond cryptocurrency mining.
The deal also highlights a much broader trend taking shape across the crypto industry. Many Bitcoin miners already own large-scale data centers, have access to significant electricity supplies and operate facilities designed to handle intensive computing workloads.
As demand for AI computing has surged, particularly following the rapid growth of generative AI, those same facilities have become valuable assets for running AI servers.
Instead of relying entirely on Bitcoin mining revenue—which can fluctuate sharply with cryptocurrency prices and mining rewards—companies are increasingly leasing their infrastructure to AI firms seeking additional computing capacity.
For many miners, AI data centers offer a more predictable source of long-term income.
For Bitdeer, the agreement represents one of its biggest AI infrastructure deals to date.
If completed, it would provide the company with a steady revenue stream over the next 16 years while strengthening its presence in one of the technology sector’s fastest-growing markets.
The shift also reflects how the business of crypto mining is evolving.
What were once facilities built primarily to secure blockchain networks are increasingly becoming high-performance computing hubs capable of supporting both cryptocurrency operations and the growing demand for artificial intelligence.
As AI companies continue racing to secure computing power, crypto miners with existing data centers and energy infrastructure are emerging as unexpected beneficiaries of the AI boom.