HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. saw its shares surge on Monday, closing up 28.6% at $3.46 on the Nasdaq, and extending gains to $3.59 in after-hours trading. The sharp move came after the company announced ambitious plans for a large-scale artificial intelligence data center in the Greater Toronto Area.
The project, spearheaded by HIVE's BUZZ High Performance Computing (HPC) division, involves a 320-megawatt facility designed to house over 100,000 graphics processing units (GPUs). The company is positioning this as an "AI gigafactory"—a data center built for industrial-scale AI workloads, shifting its narrative from a pure-play bitcoin miner to a power-and-compute provider.
According to Data Center Dynamics, the facility will be constructed on approximately 25 acres of land purchased for C$58 million. Total investment is estimated at C$3.5 billion (approximately $2.55 billion), with the site expected to go live in the second half of 2027. HIVE plans to install over 100,000 GPUs at full build-out.
Frank Holmes, executive chairman of HIVE and BUZZ, described AI as "the new industrial base," while CEO Aydin Kilic emphasized the company is "strategically land-banking by regional substations." Craig Tavares, president and COO of BUZZ HPC, called compute "the new engine."
HIVE currently has over 850 MW of power capacity globally, with 450 MW powering existing data centers and another 400 MW planned for 2027. The company operates 5,500 GPUs for AI compute and holds enough land and power in Canada to support approximately 130,000 GPUs.
The stock's rally stood in contrast to other crypto miners, which declined on Monday. MARA Holdings fell 2.2% to $12.18, Riot Platforms slipped 1.3% to $23.18, and Hut 8 dropped 6.2% to $96.20. Bitcoin traded near $77,142, having dipped to $76,056 earlier in the session.
Broader markets also struggled, with the Nasdaq Composite declining 0.51% and the S&P 500 shedding 0.07%. Higher oil prices and rising Treasury yields weighed on technology stocks. "Oil prices were the one issue" shifting markets, Burns McKinney, portfolio manager at NFJ Investment Group, told Reuters.
HIVE's move to the main Toronto Stock Exchange from the TSX Venture Exchange took effect on May 12, with shares trading under the HIVE symbol on both the Nasdaq and TSX. The company also raised C$56.5 million through an at-the-market equity sale in the first quarter, moving nearly 15 million shares.
However, risks remain. The project won't begin operations until late 2027 and faces execution hurdles, including permits, power connections, GPU procurement, and customer demand validation. Financing requirements also persist. Investors will get their first chance to price the AI-factory plan in regular TSX trading on Tuesday, following Monday's Victoria Day holiday closure.
