Hive Digital Embraces AI, Shakes Up Crypto Mining

Key Points:

• Hive Blockchain rebrands to Hive Digital Technologies and expands into AI.
• The company drops “blockchain” from its name to reflect its new focus on revenue opportunities in GPUs, cloud computing, and AI.
• Hive intends to use its large fleet of Nvidia GPUs to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a more efficient alternative to major cloud service providers.

Hive Blockchain, a Canadian crypto mining firm, is now rebranding itself as Hive Digital Technologies.

The company has made this move to draw attention to its venture into artificial intelligence. In a statement released on July 12th, Hive announced that it had dropped the word “blockchain” from its name to reflect its “evolving focus” on revenue opportunities in graphics processing units (GPUs) and cloud computing. The company also intends to drive advancements in AI and support the “new Web3 ecosystem.”

According to Hive’s CEO, Aydin Kilic, the company requires a strategy that better reflects both sides of its business as it expands its GPU Cloud business. Hive builds infrastructure for emerging digital tech, not just blockchain, and intends to utilize its large fleet of GPUs to grow a cloud hosting business. The company also plans to use its 38,000-strong fleet of Nvidia GPUs to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a more efficient alternative to major cloud service providers.

Kilic believes that AI and machine learning will drive significant demand for GPU compute going forward. While most crypto mining companies today focus on mining Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Hive was among a handful of firms that leveraged GPUs to mine Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network at scale. However, following the completion of the Ethereum Merge in September 2021, which saw the blockchain transition to a miner-less Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, the GPUs once used to mine ETH were rendered drastically less profitable.

Hive Blockchain’s move to rebrand itself is not unique, as on Jan. 3, 2022, Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain also rebranded to Riot Platforms to reflect its “increasingly diversified business operations.”

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