Hut 8 Mining seeks to reactivate 6,400 machines relocated from its inactive North Bay, Ontario, site as it is experiencing an increased demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing.
As previously reported, Hut 8 and its third-party energy supplier Validus Power are engaged in an ongoing legal dispute over alleged failure to satisfy contractual obligations. The mining facility’s operations have been discontinued since November 2022.
Hut 8 declined to comment on court case proceedings but verified that 6,400 miners are being relocated to Texas as the company attempts to return its idle equipment online.
This specific set of miners is anticipated to be operational by the end of July 2023, bringing Hut 8’s total installed hash rate to 3.2 exahashes per second.
A three-month agreement to house 6,400 North Bay miners has been reached, and Hut 8 intends to renew the arrangement on a month-to-month basis. In March 2023, Hut 8 relocated 988 miners from North Bay to its Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada facility.
Jaime Leverton, the chief executive officer of Hut 8, also discussed the present state of the cryptocurrency mining ecosystem in light of 18 months of challenging market conditions.
“The industry has rebounded well over the past few months, and we have seen more momentum than originally anticipated, partly due to some of our peers following our lead in the HPC and AI computing spaces.”
Artificial intelligence and high-performance computation continue to garner interest and investment. Microsoft and Nvidia led the $1.8 billion funding round for Palo Alto-based Inflection AI, with some funds designated for constructing a 22,000-strong Nvidia H100 Tensor GPU cluster.
Hut 8 has also begun deploying its infrastructure to support services and solutions unrelated to Bitcoin mining.
Leverton highlighted a new five-year contract to provide computer infrastructure and hosting services to the Interior Health Authority of British Columbia and a case study conducted with 3D generative AI company XYZ AI.
