Bitfarms Appoints HPC Executive as Bitcoin Miners Diversify Amid Industry Headwinds
Bitfarms has appointed a senior vice president of high-performance computing (HPC), marking the first step in its push into AI and cloud infrastructure services as it seeks to diversify beyond Bitcoin mining.
In a statement on Wednesday, Bitfarms announced it has hired James Bond, a veteran with 20 years of experience in HPC and AI infrastructure, to lead its HPC initiatives. The move reflects a broader trend among Bitcoin miners looking to expand revenue streams amid declining mining profitability.
Bond joins Bitfarms after 15 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he led North American HPC and AI platforms and helped grow the segment to $2 billion in revenue by 2024. According to the release, his experience includes designing large-scale infrastructure and go-to-market strategies in collaboration with partners such as NVIDIA and Intel.
The pivot comes as Bitcoin miners face mounting pressure from a declining hashprice—a key metric of mining revenue per unit of computing power—which has trended downward following the Bitcoin halving last year and a subsequent rise in network hashrate.
In response, several public mining companies—including Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ), Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT), Terawulf, Bitdeer, Iris Energy, Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT), and HIVE Digital (NASDAQ: HIVE)—have begun reallocating power and data center capacity toward HPC and AI hosting opportunities. Riot, one of the largest Bitcoin holders in the sector, recently paused a planned 600 MW hashrate expansion to preserve capacity for potential HPC deployments.
Bitfarms’ HPC hire follows its merger with U.S.-based miner and power producer Stronghold Digital, one of the largest consolidation deals in the industry, aimed at expanding its overall power capacity portfolio.
“We are thrilled to welcome James into this critically important role at Bitfarms,” said CEO Ben Gagnon. “James and the team he builds will spearhead the development and implementation of our long-term HPC and AI strategy.”
