Crypto mining company Hive Blockchain has changed its name to Hive Digital Technologies to emphasize its venture into artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, GPUs, and Web3.
The Vancouver, Canada-based mining company announced on July 12 that it has dropped the word “blockchain” from its name to reflect better its “evolving focus” on revenue opportunities in graphics processing units (GPUs) and cloud computing, as well as “its mission to drive advancements in AI” and support the “new Web3 ecosystem.”
“As we expand our GPU Cloud business, we need a strategy that accurately reflects both aspects of our company. In a July 12 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Hive’s CEO Aydin Kilic stated, “We build infrastructure for emerging digital technologies, not just blockchain, and we intend to use our large GPU fleet to grow a cloud hosting business.”
In addition, Hive announced that it will utilize its 38,000-strong fleet of Nvidia GPUs to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a more cost-effective alternative to the largest cloud service providers.
Kilic added, “We believe AI and machine learning will drive significant demand for GPU compute in the future.”
Hive was one of only a handful of companies that leveraged GPUs to mine Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, at scale. Most crypto mining companies today concentrate on mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
After the conclusion of the Ethereum Merge in September 2022, which saw the blockchain transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and eliminate the need for miners, the GPUs formerly used to mine ETH became significantly less profitable.
The mining company Hive Blockchain is not the first to remove “blockchain” from its name. Riot Blockchain changed its name to Riot Platforms on January 3 to reflect its “increasingly diversified business operations.”
