CleanSpark jumps on plans to buy four bitcoin mining facilities ahead of the halving
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%.
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An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.
The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.
For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.
Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.
Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.
Technology
SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.
The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”
“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.
Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.
The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.
In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information.
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