An array of bitcoin mining units inside a container at a CleanSpark facility in College Park, Georgia, on April 22, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bitcoin miner CleanSpark climbed on Tuesday after the company said it will acquire new mining facilities that will give it the power and infrastructure to potentially double its hashrate within the first half of the year.
CleanSpark shares were last higher by 11%, also helped by a midday rise in the price of bitcoin.
The company agreed to buy three “turnkey” sites — meaning they need only to plug their existing hardware into the facility — in Mississippi for $19.8 million in cash. That transaction will close within 21 days. The company expects the sites to support about 14% of its revenue shortly after closing.
Additionally, CleanSpark plans to acquire a facility in Dalton, Georgia, for an initial cash payment of $3.4 million. Then, it will invest another $3.5 million to complete the project by April. The facility will expand its presence in Dalton to three sites.
“Our move into Mississippi is all about growing our operations and diversifying our data center portfolio in a measured way,” CEO Zachary Bradford told CNBC. “Our operations in Georgia have given us significant experience in southeastern power markets. … Mississippi is in the same electric reliability region, so we see a lot of synergies there.”
CleanSpark jumps as much as 10% after acquisition announcementOther than the mining machines themselves, electricity is one of the highest costs for bitcoin mining companies. Some have a contract with a power producer where they buy a certain amount of power annually at a fixed price. Miners who buy power at spot prices stand to lose from any spike in power prices, often in the summer or winter.
The crypto industry has been expecting consolidation among bitcoin miners — particularly those that are smaller, have higher costs or older and less efficient hardware — as miner rewards are expected to be cut in half after the much-anticipated bitcoin halving in the spring.
Bradford previously told CNBC that CleanSpark expects some miners to fall by the wayside after that point, adding that the company was eyeing potential facilities it could plug its own machines into easily. About a month ago, CleanSpark purchased 160,000 mining machines.
“The exciting thing about this expansion is that we’ll be able to quickly slot in our own servers so that we are operating almost immediately after closing the deal, shortening the path to ROI in a very attractive way,” he said Tuesday.
Generally, the mining stocks benefit from bitcoin price increases because those translate into higher mining revenue for the company.
Bitcoin miners were top performers in 2023, outperforming even bitcoin. CleanSpark gained about 440% last year, compared to bitcoin’s 157%.
A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.
“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”
Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.
Intel previously declined to comment on the report.
Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.
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How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.
Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.
“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.
Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.
“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”
Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.
Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:
EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.
Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.
CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.
The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.
Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.
“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.
Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.
The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.
Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.
Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.
Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.
Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.
The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.
Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.
Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.
“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.
Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.
Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.
In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.
Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials.It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.
Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.