HIVE Advances Canadian Sovereign AI Push With New Brunswick Fiber Network Upgrade

HIVE Digital (NASDAQ: HIVE) Technologies said Friday it is investing in new fiber infrastructure at its Grand Falls, New Brunswick campus as the Bitcoin miner continues repositioning itself toward AI and high-performance computing services.

The company said its BUZZ High Performance Computing subsidiary contracted a new fiber optic network overbuild and carrier transport upgrade for the site, a move aimed at converting the existing facility into a Tier III HPC-enabled data center capable of supporting enterprise and sovereign AI workloads.

HIVE expects to commit about $3.1 million over five years toward the network expansion, while its unnamed Canadian telecommunications partner is expected to make additional capital investments to complete the high-speed connectivity buildout.

The announcement marks another step in HIVE’s broader push into AI infrastructure, an increasingly common strategy among publicly traded Bitcoin miners seeking to diversify revenue streams beyond cryptocurrency mining. The company said proceeds from its recently completed $115 million zero-coupon exchangeable note offering are being directed toward expanding its GPU cloud and HPC operations.

The Grand Falls campus currently has 70 megawatts of energized capacity and existing electrical infrastructure in place. HIVE plans to convert the site into a 50 MW Tier III+ AI data center campus designed to host enterprise, government and sovereign AI computing workloads.

The upgraded network is expected to include multiple dedicated 100 gigabit-per-second and 400 gigabit-per-second optical wavelength connections, with initial delivery targeted for the third quarter of 2026.

HIVE executives framed the expansion as part of a broader “sovereign AI” strategy centered on keeping sensitive data and AI compute infrastructure within Canada.

“Power alone does not make a sovereign AI facility; the network that carries compute to customers is equally critical,” Chief Executive Aydin Kilic said in a statement.

The company added that its GPU cloud business is expected to double in size this year from about 5,500 GPUs to 11,000 GPUs.

The move builds on HIVE’s transition away from being solely a cryptocurrency mining company. In recent years, the Vancouver-based firm has increasingly marketed its data center infrastructure and Nvidia GPU fleet for AI cloud and HPC services through BUZZ, a strategy similar to moves pursued by other digital asset miners including Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) and Applied Digital.

The push also comes as governments and enterprises increasingly seek domestically hosted AI infrastructure amid rising concerns over data sovereignty, national security and dependence on foreign hyperscale cloud providers.