HIVE Digital Technologies just made one of its boldest moves yet. The company's subsidiary BUZZ High Performance Computing Inc. acquired approximately 25 acres of land for $58 million to develop an AI gigafactory with 320 megawatts of utility capacity.
The market responded immediately. HIVE Digital Technologies shares jumped 33% to $3.58 in Nasdaq pre‑market trading after the announcement.
Where and What Is Being Built
HIVE said BUZZ HPC acquired approximately 25 acres of land across two adjacent parcels near the Toronto‑Waterloo innovation corridor for a combined CAD $58 million. The site benefits from a 320 MW power allocation and sits close to major Canadian AI research institutions, including the University of Toronto and the Vector Institute.
BUZZ paid CAD $46 million for a 21‑acre main parcel and CAD $12 million for an adjacent four‑acre parcel along the Toronto‑Waterloo corridor.
This isn't a small data center upgrade. This is a full‑scale AI gigafactory.
Scale and Timeline
The facility is expected to become one of Canada's largest AI gigafactories, designed to host more than 100,000 GPUs at full build‑out. The project is targeted to come online in the second half of 2027 and requires a capital investment of approximately CAD $3.5 billion.
That's a serious long‑term commitment, and HIVE is clearly building for the future, not just the next quarter.
Jobs and Economic Impact
This project isn't just about compute power. It's about people too. The development is expected to create over 800 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent high‑skill positions.
The project will also utilise closed‑loop cooling systems featuring a no‑water‑use approach, a meaningful sustainability detail in a sector often criticised for its environmental footprint.
Canada First: The Sovereignty Angle
HIVE isn't just building infrastructure. It's making a statement. The company framed the project as part of a broader push to build "sovereign AI infrastructure" within Canada, allowing domestic AI developers and enterprises to run workloads locally instead of relying on foreign cloud providers.
Executive chairman Frank Holmes said the facility would allow AI applications, including financial platforms, healthcare and scientific research, to run "on Canadian iron, under Canadian control."
A Former Bitcoin Miner Reinventing Itself
This is HIVE's latest push away from its legacy bitcoin mining business into AI and high‑performance compute infrastructure. Last month, HIVE lined up a $75 million convertible note offering to help fund GPU purchases and data center expansion. In March, the company said it was working to wind down ASIC bitcoin mining at its Boden, Sweden, facility to convert it into an AI‑focused data center.
HIVE now has over 850 MW of power globally, including 450 MW of operating data centers and a pipeline of 400 MW of capacity expected to come online in 2027.
The pivot is well underway, and investors are clearly paying attention.
