datacenter

Hut 8 has signed a major deal for its River Bend data center in Louisiana. The bitcoin miner agreed to a fifteen-year AI data center lease with Fluidstack worth seven billion dollars. The contract has options for expansion and renewal that could raise the total value to around seventeen point seven billion dollars. The deal caused Hut 8 shares to jump nearly twenty percent last week.
Analyst Mark Palmer from Benchmark said the deal marks a shift for Hut 8 from a crypto-focused power operator to an institutional-grade digital infrastructure company. He noted the deal is different from other AI data center agreements because of its structure the quality of cash flows and the strong counterparties involved.
Hut 8 keeps full ownership of its assets and benefits from a fifteen-year payment backstop from Google. This reduces risk for Hut 8 while allowing it to control the economic value of the lease without giving up equity or other concessions. Palmer called this a key factor in lowering counterparty risk and adding long-term stability.
The River Bend lease covers an initial 245 megawatts of AI-ready power. Benchmark values this portion at about seven point six billion dollars. The value reflects both the contracted cash flows and the scarcity of AI-ready power backed by a strong investment-grade counterparty.
Palmer said Hut 8 did not rush into selling or leasing power assets during the early AI infrastructure expansion. The management waited until the arrangement met their strategic goals and return expectations. This careful approach allowed Hut 8 to secure favorable terms compared to peer deals.
The deal also includes three five-year renewal options and additional rights for Fluidstack to expand. If these are exercised, the total contract value could rise to seventeen point seven billion dollars. Benchmark’s valuation also considers Hut 8’s stake in American Bitcoin Corp and the bitcoin holdings on its balance sheet as of September 30.
As a result of the deal Benchmark raised Hut 8’s price target to eighty-five dollars from seventy-seven and kept a buy rating on the stock. The analyst highlighted the strong long-term cash flows and expansion potential as reasons for the positive outlook.
Other brokers have also adjusted price targets. Cantor Fitzgerald increased its target to seventy-two dollars from sixty-four and Canaccord raised its target to sixty-two dollars from fifty-four.
Overall the River Bend agreement positions Hut 8 as a key player in AI infrastructure while continuing its bitcoin mining operations. The combination of long-term contracts strong counterparties and potential expansion makes the company attractive to investors looking for exposure to both AI and crypto-related infrastructure. The deal reflects Hut 8’s careful strategy and ability to secure high-value agreements in a competitive market.
#Datacenter #CryptoNews #CryptoInsights #Write2EarnUpgrade

شهدت الساعات الماضية تقارير من Bloomberg تفيد بأن شركة OpenAI تدرس إنشاء مركز بيانات في دولة الإمارات، وقد يتم الإعلان عن هذه الخطوة خلال زيارة الرئيس الأمريكي السابق دونالد ترامب للمنطقة هذا الأسبوع .

الدافع وراء القرار:

تسهيل تصدير رقائق الذكاء الاصطناعي: أورد تقرير من Reuters أن إدارة ترامب تنوي السماح للإمارات باستيراد نحو 500,000 شريحة متطورة من Nvidia سنويًا حتى عام 2027، يُخصص منها 20% إلى شركة G42 الإماراتية، بينما قد يتلقى القسم الآخر شركاء مثل OpenAI لإنشاء بنية تحتية محلية للذكاء الاصطناعي .

تعزيز البنية التحتية الإقليمية: يهدف مركز البيانات إلى خفض زمن الاستجابة (latency) وتحسين أداء خدمات OpenAI ومنصات الحوسبة السحابية في الشرق الأوسط، مما يدعم الشركات والحكومات المحلية في تبني تطبيقات الذكاء الاصطناعي بشكل أوسع.

التحديات والاعتبارات:

الأمن القومي وتقلبات السياسة الخارجية: يثير رفع قيود تصدير الرقائق مخاوف لدى بعض المشرعين الأمريكيين بشأن تسرب التكنولوجيا المتقدمة إلى دول قد تستخدمها لأغراض منافسة مع الصين أو لأغراض أمنية حساسة.

التنسيق مع قادة الخليج: قد يتم توقيع اتفاقية مركز البيانات خلال قمة الأعمال المصاحبة لزيارة ترامب، التي تشهد أيضًا توقيع صفقات دفاعية واستثمارية كبيرة مع السعودية والإمارات، منها صفقة صيانة وتوريد طائرات بقيمة مئات مليارات الدولارات .

توقعات المستقبل:
من المتوقع أن يسلط إعلان OpenAI الضوء على تحول الإمارات إلى مركز إقليمي لتقنيات الذكاء الاصطناعي، ويعزز مكانتها في خارطة المنافسة العالمية بين عمالقة التكنولوجيا. كما سيفتح ذلك الباب أمام استثمارات إضافية وتعاونات استراتيجية مع شركات أمريكية وأوروبية.
$XRP
#OpenAI #UAE #Datacenter #TrumpVisit

Global financial markets were jolted early Friday morning after CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, abruptly halted trading across key asset classes due to a severe technical failure in its data center.
The outage affected FX, stock index futures, commodities, futures and options — essentially the entire Globex platform.

This left traders without crucial benchmark pricing for S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and major currency pairs such as EUR/USD and USD/JPY.

What happened? Cooling failure shut down the data center
According to early reports from Reuters, the incident was caused by a cooling system failure at a CyrusOne facility, which powers CME’s systems.

Without cooling, servers began shutting down automatically — forcing CME to halt trading immediately.
The alert was issued to traders shortly before 03:00 GMT, triggering confusion during an already low-liquidity post-Thanksgiving Asian session.
CME stated:

“Support teams are working toward a resolution and will update clients on the pre-open details as soon as they are available.”

The outage also hit major FX platform EBS
The disruption didn’t stop with derivatives. The widely used FX trading platform EBS was also affected.

Market data from LSEG showed that quotes for major currency and equity pairs had not updated since 03:44 GMT.

This effectively left global markets “blind” for hours.
Analysts warned that November’s volatile market environment made the situation even more destabilizing.
Tony Sycamore of IG Markets said:

“This didn’t help at all — especially on a day when there was genuine appetite for trading.”

CME invests in infrastructure — including tokenization via Google Cloud
Ironically, the outage comes at a time when CME is heavily investing in strengthening its own technology.
In March, the exchange partnered with Google Cloud to experiment with how tokenization could enhance traditional financial processes.

Using Google Cloud’s Universal Ledger, they are testing new ledger models designed to enable more efficient asset management.

CME expands its crypto lineup: new XRP and Solana futures
The technical disruption arrived only a week after CME announced two new crypto derivatives:
🔹 spot futures on XRP

🔹 spot futures on Solana
Both contracts are scheduled to launch on December 15, pending regulatory approval.

They will be tied to real-time spot prices and will offer institutions:
🔹 more flexible hedging

🔹 lower margin requirements

🔹 accompanying options in the near future
Despite the outage, CME says it continues to see record crypto trading volumes and strong demand for U.S. Treasury futures.

CME stock keeps rising — investors trust its long-term story
Even with the disruptions, CME Group’s stock remains strong:
📈 Up over 20% since the start of the year

📈 Nearly 90% growth over the past five years
These figures highlight the exchange’s robust operating performance and sustained investor confidence.

Conclusion
The outage exposed how fragile even the most sophisticated global trading systems can be.

And although CME is working quickly to restore full operations, the incident comes at a time of heightened volatility — potentially shaking confidence among traders.
It also underscores a reality of modern finance: global markets rely heavily on data centers and technical partners. When one link fails, the entire system can come to a halt.

#Datacenter , #cme , #futures , #crypto , #altcoins

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#OpenAI is building a massive Stargate-branded AI data center in Norway, marking its first European infrastructure project. The facility, designed by Nscale and Aker, aims to deploy 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of 2026, fully powered by renewable energy with 230 MW capacity.
The initial 20MW phase, backed by $1 billion from Nscale and Aker, will be built in Kvandal, Norway, leveraging abundant hydropower and low local demand. The project aligns with Europe’s “sovereign AI” initiative, ensuring AI workloads remain on European soil.
This move follows OpenAI’s global infrastructure expansion, including a Stargate campus in the UAE. Nvidia’s chips continue to dominate AI workloads, while Europe pushes for large-scale AI infrastructure to address computing capacity gaps and fragmentation.

[위클리블록체인] OpenAI, 유럽 최대급 데이터 센터 건설… 10만 개 NVIDIA 칩 도입
OpenAI가 노르웨이에 10만 개 이상의 NVIDIA GPU를 탑재한 대형 데이터 센터 ‘Stargate’를 구축한다. 이는 OpenAI의 유럽 내 첫 데이터 센터 프로젝트로, 영국의 Nscale과 노르웨이 인프라 기업 Aker가 50:50 합작해 설계와 건설을 담당한다.
100% 재생 에너지 기반 230MW 규모
데이터 센터는 2026년 말까지 100,000개의 GPU를 제공할 계획이며, 230메가와트 규모로 유럽에서 가장 큰 데이터 센터 중 하나가 될 전망이다. 해당 시설은 재생 에너지 100%를 사용해 운영될 예정이다.
Nscale은 초기 20MW 규모의 1단계 프로젝트에만 약 10억 달러를 투자할 예정이며, 노르웨이 Kvandal 지역에 위치하게 된다. 이 지역은 풍부한 수력 자원과 낮은 전력 수요, 제한된 송전 용량으로 잘 알려져 있다.
유럽 ‘주권 AI’ 전략과 연계
유럽은 AI 작업 및 데이터 처리를 유럽 내에서 수행해야 한다는 ‘주권 AI’ 개념을 강조하고 있다. 이번 프로젝트는 유럽 내 컴퓨팅 파워 부족과 분절된 인프라 문제를 해소해 생산성 향상과 경제적 이익을 창출할 것으로 기대된다.
OpenAI는 이미 UAE에 Stargate 캠퍼스 건설 계획을 발표하는 등 글로벌 인프라 확장을 진행 중이다.
#Nvidia #AI #DataCenter #CryptoNews