HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: HIVE; NASDAQ: HIVE) has contracted a fibre optic overbuild and upgrade at its Grand Falls Data Centre in New Brunswick, aiming to advance the site into a 50 MW Tier III+ AI factory. The project represents a core step in HIVE’s strategy to build sovereign AI infrastructure in Canada. The company is committing approximately US$3.1 million over five years to the initiative, funded in part by proceeds from its recent US$115 million 0% exchangeable note issuance that are being deployed toward GPU AI and tiered HPC data centre growth.
Grand Falls upgrade targets a Tier III HPC footprint
Grand Falls is already energized with 70 MW gross load and has buildings and core electrical infrastructure in place. BUZZ High Performance Computing, a wholly owned subsidiary of HIVE, is converting the site into a 50 MW Tier III+ AI factory designed to support enterprise, government, and sovereign AI workloads. BUZZ emphasizes that access to dedicated, high-capacity connectivity is a prerequisite for AI factory development, and the upgrade seeks to provide the redundancy and throughput demanded by the AI market.
To move intelligence at scale, BUZZ is partnering with a Canadian carrier to upgrade Grand Falls with dedicated high-capacity optical wavelength services. The project includes multiple 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps connections, with delivery anticipated to begin in the third quarter of 2026. The carrier is expected to bear substantial additional capital expenditures to complete the installation of these high-speed fiber links, alongside HIVE’s own capital commitment.
Strategic positioning: sovereignty, speed, and scale
HIVE argues that “AI is the new industrial race,” a sentiment echoed by its leadership as the company positions Canada to host sovereign AI infrastructure. Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of HIVE and BUZZ, described the fibre overbuild as “the superhighway that moves that intelligence to customers.” He noted that power, fibre, and GPUs together form an AI factory, and he highlighted New Brunswick’s potential to become a key AI infrastructure hub for Canada. Holmes added that the company is aiming to translate Canadian power into Canadian AI tokens of intelligence through its strategic buildout.
AI is the new industrial race. Countries that build sovereign AI factories will raise their productivity and security through data sovereignty, ensuring data doesn’t leave the countries borders, providing those nations greater data IQ. Countries that do not have their own sovereign AI infrastructure will depend on foreign infrastructure and thus rent intelligence from others.
Aydin Kilic, President and CEO of HIVE and BUZZ, underscored that connectivity is essential to actualizing AI factory development. He stated that “Power alone does not make a sovereign AI facility; the network that carries compute to customers is equally critical.” Kilic highlighted the plan to secure exclusive dedicated network capacity at Grand Falls, enabling BUZZ to serve enterprise and sovereign AI customers with the redundancy and throughput required by the market. He also noted that BUZZ’s GPU AI cloud offering is expanding, with the company doubling its size this year—from about 5,500 GPUs to 11,000 GPUs—and that the 50 MW Tier III HPC capacity will further accelerate BUZZ’s growth in HPC colocations.
Operational and financial context
The fibre optic upgrade and overbuild are designed to strengthen BUZZ’s ability to deliver high-capacity services for AI workloads. The project aligns with HIVE’s broader objective of expanding its GPU AI cloud footprint while also growing its HPC data center capacity. The Grand Falls initiative is described as a modular, sequenced buildout intended to support both enterprise and sovereign AI workloads hosted on Canadian soil.
HIVE emphasizes that the Grand Falls project is part of its targeted growth trajectory in GPU AI and Tier III HPC data center development. The company has already highlighted the conversion of the New Brunswick site as a key milestone in advancing its sovereign AI strategy. The anticipated delivery timeline for the new 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps connections is set for Q3 2026, with the Canadian carrier undertaking substantial capital expenditures beyond HIVE’s contributions to complete the installation.
Corporate background and subsidiary profile
HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. was founded in 2017 and operates as a public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and NASDAQ. It positions itself as the first publicly listed company to mine digital assets powered by green energy and runs next-generation Tier I and Tier III data centres across Canada, Sweden, and Paraguay. The company serves both Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing clients through a two-pronged strategy anchored in green energy infrastructure and GPU-accelerated AI computing.
BUZZ High Performance Computing, the wholly owned subsidiary of HIVE, is described as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner that delivers enterprise-grade cloud services and large-scale GPU clusters through vertically integrated data centres. BUZZ markets itself as Canada’s sovereign AI platform operator, serving clients across multiple time zones and continents, with a focus on renewable energy, ultra-low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) — below 1.3 — and scalable GPU-based AI workloads, including training, fine-tuning, and inference. BUZZ’s platform supports Kubernetes, Slurm, virtual machines, and bare-metal deployments tailored for AI and scientific workloads.
About the companies
HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. builds and operates data centres and GPU AI compute infrastructure with an emphasis on energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. BUZZ High Performance Computing, a Canadian, globally oriented subsidiary of HIVE, provides managed and hosted AI infrastructure and services, including sovereign AI capabilities hosted on Canadian soil. Both entities emphasize renewable energy usage and a scalable approach to AI and HPC workloads.
For more information, visit hivedigitaltech.com, and connect with HIVE on social media channels linked via the company’s investor relations pages.
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