Stablecoin giant Tether has announced a strategic investment in German-listed Bitcoin miner Northern Data Group (ETR: NB2), which the former says will be “the biggest independent AI Player in Europe.”
The investment follows previous attempts from Tether to expand beyond fintech, and continues a growing trend of crypto firms diversifying into artificial intelligence.
Tether’s Big AI Play
Per Tether’s statement on Thursday, the company said that Northern Data’s commitment to “resilient data storage and high-performance computing” aligns with the stablecoin issuer’s “forward-looking” goals. Its initiatives with the firm will leverage several technologies including AI, and peer-to-peer communication, among other things.
“We are excited about this investment into Northern Data Group as it represents a fresh venture into new technological frontiers,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s Chief Technology Officer, in a statement. “This investment underscores our commitment to responsible growth and innovation while preserving the strength and integrity of Tether tokens’s reserves.”
Prior to Tether’s official statement, Forbes reported that Tether had invested $420 million in 10,000 of Nvidia’s H100 cloud GPUs through an Irish shell company, Damoon. It also claimed Tether had acquired a 20% stake in Northern Data as part of the deal.
Tether referenced no exact figure for its GPU purchase, but did state that it’s investment in Northern Data was made “through Damoon. “
“A media report from Forbes contained inaccuracies regarding Tether’s stake size in this investment,” the company added.
The company emphasized that its investments “do not impact Tether’s reserves or customer funds”, which were most recently reported to contain over $86 billion in assets, including $3.3 billion of excess reserves.
Tether lashed back at the Wall Street Journal on Thursday for doubting the company’s plans to resume its stablecoin lending service. “The banking industry is facing significant challenges and has proven incapable of keeping up with evolving global financial markets,” the firm wrote.
Diversification In Crypto
Tether announced multiple major Bitcoin mining investments earlier this year, including sustainable mining with a local partner in Uruguay, and participation in El Salvador’s $1 billion Bitcoin mining initiative.
Mining firms are also breaking into AI, leveraging their existing infrastructure and data centers to host high-performance computing hardware. A report from JP Morgan last month suggested that HPC services are a far more profitable use of their infrastructure than Bitcoin mining itself.
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