Block reward miner Hive Digital ditches ‘blockchain’ tag as it pivots toward AI

Canada-based digital asset mining firm Hive Digital has signaled its intention to pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) following the announcement of a remand.

The firm announced that it will be removing the “blockchain” tag from its name to reflect the widening scope of its operations. Going forward, the firm will be known as Hive Digital Technologies Ltd (TSXV: HIVE | OTCQX: HVBTF | FSE: HBF) as its probes for new “revenue opportunities.”

In its statement, Hive said it will increase its focus on Cloud computing technology using its Nvidia Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to explore AI applications. Despite removing “blockchain” from its appellation, the company notes that the push into AI development is ultimately designed to “support the new Web3 ecosystem.”

“As we expand our GPU Cloud business, we require a strategy that better reflects both sides of our business,” Hive CEO Aydin Kilic said. “We build infrastructure for emerging digital tech, not just blockchain, and we intend to utilize our large fleet of GPUs to grow a cloud hosting business.”

HIVE says that the rebrand will not affect its current investments in BTC mining, but it will earmark 38,000 Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) GPUs for computational tasks. Kilic justifies the expansion, saying that the frantic developments in AI will “drive significant demand for GPU computing going forward.”

Hive plans to expand into renting GPU server clusters dubbed Hive Cloud to rival the offerings of major cloud service providers.

Executive Chairman Frank Holmes remarked that a foray into GPU computing could provide Hive with annual revenues surpassing $100,000,000. The company is banking on the sky-high adoption metrics of generative AI platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Bard.

Barely two months after ChatGPT’s launch, the offering racked up over 100 million users, making it the “fastest-growing tech product of all time.”

In January, block reward mining firm Riot Blockchain changed its name to Riot Platform as it sought to diversify its operations.

Amid the soaring adoption of AI platforms, technology firms are rolling out new products to support innovation in the ecosystem. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiled a new MI300X AI Accelerator chip designed to snag a chunk of the market share from Nvidia.

At the moment, Taiwan produces the bulk of chips required by OpenAI to develop its large language models (LLMs), but the firm has confirmed its search for new suppliers to meet rising demand.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated his company’s intention to invest in South Korean startups building AI infrastructure while China puts a lid on raw materials needed for making semiconductors.