HIVE Digital Technologies (Nasdaq: HIVE) announced a major artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure agreement through its subsidiary BUZZ High Performance Computing (BUZZ HPC) on June 18,
HIVE Digital Technologies (Nasdaq: HIVE) announced a major artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure agreement through its subsidiary BUZZ High Performance Computing (BUZZ HPC) on June 18, joining forces with Bell Canada and Cohere to build what the companies describe as a sovereign Canadian AI platform.
The agreement includes a three-year GPU cloud contract valued at approximately $220 million, making it one of the largest AI infrastructure deployments announced in Canada.
The partnership combines Bell's connectivity and data centre infrastructure, Cohere's enterprise-grade AI models, and BUZZ HPC's NVIDIA-accelerated GPU cloud capabilities into a unified technology stack designed to serve Canadian businesses and government organizations.
Related: HIVE Digital acquires 32 MW Swedish data center after 8 years as tenant
The project is centered on a sovereign AI strategy that keeps data, computing infrastructure, and AI systems within Canada.
Under the agreement, BUZZ HPC will deploy its AI cloud infrastructure at Bell's purpose-built facility in Merritt, British Columbia. The system will provide the computing power needed for Cohere's AI models and enterprise AI applications.
The deployment includes 2,304 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs as a part of NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems. The infrastructure will also use NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand networking, advanced liquid cooling technology, and be built according to NVIDIA's reference architecture standards.
According to HIVE, the AI factories will be powered by renewable energy and designed for ultra-low power usage effectiveness (PUE).
The companies said the initiative supports Canada's broader effort to strengthen technology sovereignty and maintain control of data and computing resources within national borders.
HIVE said it is funding the purchase of the NVIDIA systems using part of the proceeds from its $115 million convertible note financing completed in April.
Canadian technology company Hypertec will supply and integrate the GPU infrastructure. Its responsibilities include hardware procurement, system integration, installation, commissioning, and ongoing OEM support.
The deployment is expected to become operational between late 2026 and early 2027.
The company said the project will contribute significantly to its growing high-performance computing (HPC) business.
"We are very pleased to announce that our contracted HPC revenue target has surpassed $100m. We expect this NVIDIA GB200 deployment to go live in late 2026 to early 2027, adding approximately contracted $70m ARR to our current realized $35m ARR," HIVE President and CEO Aydin Kilic said.
Kilic described AI factories as essential infrastructure for the next generation of computing.
"A technological revolution requires new infrastructure. The industrial revolution required factories. The internet required fibre networks and hyperscale data centres," he remarked. "Artificial intelligence requires AI Factories, Tier III data centers with AI optimized GPU compute clusters, that is what we are building."
HIVE executive chairman Frank Holmes said the agreement represents a major step toward commercializing Canada's AI expertise.
"Canada helped pioneer modern artificial intelligence. What we have lacked is not talent, it is industrial infrastructure to commercialize that talent at scale before others do it for us," he said.
Holmes added that the partnership validates HIVE's position in AI infrastructure and data centre operations.
BUZZ HPC President and COO Craig Tavares said the project goes beyond a single commercial agreement and reflects a broader effort to establish domestic AI capabilities.
"These AI factories convert renewable energy into one of the most valuable products in the world: intelligence," he said.
"The countries that own the infrastructure will capture the economic value. The countries that don't will rent it. We chose to build."
The partnership places BUZZ HPC's computing resources alongside Bell AI Fabric's national infrastructure and Cohere's enterprise AI offerings.
Together, the companies said they are creating a full-stack AI platform designed to provide connectivity, data centres, compute power, cybersecurity, and AI models within a single Canadian ecosystem.
The infrastructure will remain entirely within Canada and operate under Canadian standards.
HIVE said the project strengthens BUZZ HPC's position in the country's sovereign AI market while helping support the growing demand for secure, domestically controlled AI infrastructure.
Related: HIVE subsidiary BUZZ launches major AI infrastructure project in Toronto
