Northern Bitcoin AG, a Frankfurt-based technology company that’s focused on Bitcoin and the production of highly efficient mobile containers, and Whinstone US, a service provider for large stationary data centers, are now operating as Northern Data AG following their merger in December. The new company is building a leading global infrastructure for High-Performance Computing (HPC) and is home to a Bitcoin-mining hotspot – Rockdale, Texas.
With its 100-acre Bitcoin mining operation located in Rockdale, a small town of 6,000 residents, Northern Data leases its high-powered facility to companies interested in mining Bitcoin.
Sources tell Bloomberg that SBI Crypto, a unit of SBI Holdings, and Japanese internet giant GMO, which started allowing employees to earn part of their salaries in Bitcoin back in 2017, will launch its crypto mining operation at Northern Data’s Rockdale location through a large leasing contract designed to bring “further large, crypto-savvy investors on board.”
The data center will have an initial capacity of 300 megawatts, scaling up to a full gigawatt of computing power by the end of the year, a target that would establish Northern Data as the world’s largest Bitcoin mining operation, providing three times the capacity of neighboring Bitmain, which launched its Rockdale mining farm in October of 2019.
Whinstone US co-founder Lyle Theriot says demand has been overwhelming and that the new Texas facility is a game-changer in the industry.
“Building the world’s largest Bitcoin mining facility in Texas is a big step for our fast-growing company and a great success for the blockchain industry in the United States.”
Through its merger with Northern Bitcoin, the company will expand into other transformational industries including artificial intelligence, game streaming, autonomous driving and video rendering, turning Rockdale into a tech hub.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners continue to flock to Texas for its cheap electricity in order to solve complex mathematical puzzles that produce new bitcoins.
Says Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone,
“Bitcoin is attracting more institutional investors and with the notion of limited supply and mass adoption – Bitcoin is winning this race.”
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