Bitcoin mining company Bit Digital has acquired an industrial building in Madison, North Carolina, upping the ante in a business diversification strategy that includes strategic pivots into AI and high-performance computing. 

Bit Digital agreed to buy the property for $53.2 million through Enovum Data Centers Corp., the company’s wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, regulatory filings show. The investment includes a $2.25 million initial deposit, with $1.2 million being non-refundable. The transaction is expected to close on May 15.

Bit Digital disclosed the acquisition in a Form 8-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Source: SEC

Bit Digital’s regulatory filing was submitted around the same time that it announced a new Tier 3 data center site in Quebec, Canada, which will support the company’s 5 megawatt colocation agreement with AI infrastructure provider Cerebras Systems. 

The Quebec facility is being retrofitted with roughly $40 million in upgrades to meet Tier 3 standards — strict requirements that ensure high reliability for critical systems and continuous operation.

Bit Digital CEO Sam Tabar said at the time that the Quebec operation “represents continued momentum in our strategy to deliver purpose-built AI infrastructure at scale.”

Related: Auradine raises $153M, debuts business group for AI data centers

Miners under pressure to diversify

Faced with volatile crypto prices and a quadrennial Bitcoin halving cycle that squeezes revenues, several mining firms have leveraged their existing infrastructure to pivot to other data-intensive workloads. Mining companies like Hive Digital say AI data centers offer potentially higher revenue streams than crypto mining. 

In the latest sign of economic pain, public Bitcoin miners sold more than 40% of their Bitcoin (BTC) holdings in March, according to data from TheMinerMag publication. 

Public miners that can’t keep their costs under control struggle the most in maintaining their Bitcoin operations, placing more pressure on executives to seek out alternative revenue streams.

An October report by CoinShares suggested that the least profitable miners are more likely to shift gears to AI and other workloads. 

The cost per Bitcoin is an important metric for mining companies, which have struggled to remain profitable in a post-halving environment. Source: CoinShares

Related: SEC says proof-of-work mining does not constitute securities dealing