Hut 8, a Canadian company specialized in cryptocurrency mining and data center management, announced on September 26 its new GPU-as-a-Service business aimed at Artificial Intelligence developers. The company reported that it is already generating new income, although it did not detail the figures. The project, developed in partnership with technology companies Hewlett Packard and AdvizeX and will be operated by Hut 8 through its subsidiary Highrise AI. This with the idea of offering service to AI developers through a cluster, or group of interconnected computers, of 1,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUshosted in a data center in the city of Chicago, United States. High-performance GPU cluster has been deployed for AI development, indicating that GPUs will be used to train and run artificial intelligence models. This diversifies Hut 8's operations beyond Bitcoin mining, incorporating AI computing as a new line of business. Regarding this, Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot demonstrated his enthusiasm for the implementation of the new service.
“We believe that a carefully structured AI computing business will be accretive both financially and strategically and will drive revenue growth, revenue diversification and long-term value creation.” Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8.
Hut 8 wants to expand its sources of income
Faced with an unprofitable situation in bitcoin mining, This launch is intended to diversify and expand the company's computing capabilitiesin addition to bitcoin mining and its computing-related services. GPU-as-a-Service is a cloud computing tool that provides access to graphics processing units (GPUs) on demand. This cloud GPU tool enables interested users to perform computing and data processing intensive tasks without investing in expensive hardware. Users pay for GPU usage timewhich offers them a flexible and scalable solution in exchange for that remuneration towards Hut 8. In this way, the BTC mining company would have developed a new business to mitigate times of volatility in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and low profitability of this activity. For example, in the second quarter, Bitcoin mining accounted for 39.5% of Hut 8's total revenuewhile data center and cloud computing services contributed 25.6% and 9.55%, respectively. Now, Hut 8 has a five-year deal with Highrise AI, which includes fixed infrastructure payments and revenue sharing that will provide the Canadian company with another source of financial gain. Ultimately, this expansion has been well received by the market, reflected in a 4.63% increase in Hut 8's share price during the pre-market hours following the announcement, according to the statement.