Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining company CleanSpark is raising capital to expand its mining and data center operations, as major miners are drawn to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
CleanSpark announced a $1.15 billion senior convertible note offering on Tuesday, aiming to raise more capital to expand its bitcoin (BTC) mining operations.
Miner estimates that if the initial purchasers exercise their full options to purchase additional convertible notes, this would raise net proceeds of approximately $1.13 billion, or $1.28 billion. The offer is expected to close on November 13, subject to satisfactory closing conditions.
Kleinspark said it will use $460 million of the proceeds to repurchase common stock from investors, while the remainder will be used to expand the company’s power and land portfolio, develop data center infrastructure, repay its outstanding bitcoin-backed credit balance, and cover general corporate expenses.
Related: Elon Musk touts Bitcoin as energy-based and inflation-proof, unlike ‘fake fiat’
KleinSpark said it will repurchase its common stock from the convertible notes in a “privately negotiated transaction” at a price per share of $15.03, or the Nasdaq closing price, on Monday.
The common stock offering comes nearly a year after KleinSpark raised $550 million in a similar private convertible note offering, which closed on Dec. 17, 2024, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
CleanSpark is the world’s second-largest bitcoin mining firm after Marathon Holdings, with an operating hashrate of 46.60 hashes per second (EH/S), according to data from BitcoinMiningStock.com.
Related: 61% of Institutions Plan to Increase Crypto Exposure Despite October Crash: Signum
Bitcoin mining firms are expanding into AI data center infrastructure
Some major bitcoin mining companies are expanding into AI data infrastructure to diversify their revenue streams, driven in part by bitcoin’s post-halving push.
Shares of CleanSpark surged 13% within a day after the bitcoin miner first announced its AI expansion on Oct. 20, according to QuantilGraph.
“We are reviewing the entire portfolio from first principles to assess the fit of AI and have identified Georgia as a strategic region for potential conversions as well as expansion,” said Scott Garrison, chief development officer and executive vice president of ClearSpark.
In early November, bitcoin mining company Irene signed a five-year deal worth $9.7 billion to give Microsoft access to NVIDIA GPUs, further highlighting the industry’s growing convergence with AI.
Earlier in June, Core Scientific announced a $3.5 billion deal with AI cloud provider Corevio to provide an additional 200 megawatts of infrastructure to host Corevio’s high-performance computing (HPC) operations. The deal is expected to generate more than $3.5 billion over the 12-year contract period for the bitcoin miner.
The expansion of AI may have saved the basic science business, as the company initially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2022, two years before its AI pivot to the Nasdaq.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_B-7CTSVHY
Magazine: Bitcoin mining industry ‘going to die in 2 years’ – BitDigital CEO
