HIVE’s BUZZ HPC Borrows $129 Million Against a $225 Million AI Contract

HIVE's BUZZ HPC Borrows $129 Million Against a $225 Million AI Contract

Nine percent, fixed, for three years. That is what HIVE Digital Technologies agreed to pay on a $129 million loan signed October 27. Two days later, roughly $6.3 billion drained out of Binance and bitcoin slid to a six-week low of $76,368. HIVE intends to repay its new loan from an AI computing contract, not from bitcoin.

HIVE’s BUZZ Alpha Cloud Signs $129 Million Loan at 9% Fixed

HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (TSX: HIVE) (Nasdaq: HIVE) (BVC: HIVECO) disclosed on October 27 that BUZZ Alpha Cloud Inc., an indirect subsidiary, had entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with an unnamed institutional lender for a credit facility of approximately $129 million. The rate is fixed at 9.0% a year over a three-year term, and principal and interest amortize across the life of the loan. All figures in this article are in US dollars.

The money buys hardware. According to HIVE, the facility goes toward a $165 million cluster of NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) GB200 GPUs, which puts the lender at roughly 80% loan-to-cost: the loan covers about four-fifths of the purchase price, and HIVE funds the rest. Delivery is expected toward the end of the fourth quarter of 2026.

No common shares are issued under the facility, since it is structured as debt. That does not mean HIVE has stopped selling equity. It has not, as its most recent quarterly numbers show.

How HIVE’s GPU Loan Is Secured and Repaid

The lender’s security is the GPUs and related assets held by BUZZ Alpha Cloud. Behind that sits a limited recourse guarantee from BUZZ HPC, HIVE’s wholly owned AI computing subsidiary, plus a pledge of BUZZ HPC’s equity in BUZZ Alpha Cloud. Limited recourse caps what the lender can claim from BUZZ HPC; the release states BUZZ HPC is not otherwise liable under the facility.

BUZZ Alpha Cloud intends to repay the loan from contract revenue on a fixed amortization schedule. The facility carries customary covenants, including required debt-service coverage ratios, a test of whether cash from the contract comfortably exceeds the loan payments due. Neither the specific ratio nor the lender is named in the release.

At the end of the term, HIVE owns the GPUs outright with no residual payment. How much that hardware is worth by then is an open question the company raises itself: its own risk language flags the possibility that GPU useful life or resale value declines faster than expected.

The rest of the $165 million comes from 0% interest bonds HIVE sold earlier in 2026, which raised $245 million gross, or about $200 million net after capped calls, hedging contracts meant to offset share dilution if the bonds are exchanged for stock.

HIVE Revises Cohere Contract Value to $225 Million

The GPUs are earmarked for a three-year contract HIVE first announced on June 18. At the time, BUZZ HPC said it had executed a GPU cloud contract worth approximately $220 million with Bell AI Fabric, the AI platform of Bell Canada, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE) (NYSE: BCE), to supply computing for Cohere Inc., a privately held Canadian AI developer. The cluster is to be deployed at Bell’s facility in Merritt, British Columbia. HIVE calls it sovereign AI infrastructure, its term for computing hosted and controlled inside Canada.

The October release now puts the total contract value, or TCV, at $225 million. The explanation sits in a footnote: the earlier $220 million counted GPU compute revenue only, while the new figure adds connectivity and storage.

President and CEO Aydin Kilic said HIVE has “signed $600 million of TCV for GPU cloud deals this year, across 3 GPU off-take contracts,” meaning customer commitments to buy dedicated computing capacity. That is the company’s own tally.

Contracted is not the same as collected. In its fiscal first-quarter report for the period ended June 30, HIVE put its active and contracted GPU cloud annual run-rate revenue (ARR) at about $110 million. Only about $35 million of that was live; roughly $75 million came from the Cohere agreement, which depends on GPUs that have not yet been delivered.

HIVE’s Balance Sheet Shows $208 Million in Cash and an $84.7 Million Tax Provision

Bitcoin mining still pays most of the bills. HIVE reported quarterly revenue of $79.1 million, up 73.5% year over year, of which $72.1 million came from digital currency mining and $7.1 million from high-performance computing. Adjusted EBITDA was $13.4 million.

The bottom line looked very different. HIVE posted a net loss of $142.9 million, a figure that included an $84.7 million non-cash provision for contested value-added tax (VAT) assessments by the Swedish Tax Authority against its Swedish subsidiaries. The assessments mainly concern whether input VAT on mining equipment could be deducted, for periods beginning in 2023. HIVE booked the provision after adverse Court of Appeal judgments and says it continues to dispute the assessments.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $208.0 million at June 30, alongside $11.2 million in digital currencies. Part of that cash came from shareholders. During the quarter HIVE issued 9,855,902 common shares through its at-the-market (ATM) program, which sells new stock gradually into the open market, for gross proceeds of about $31.1 million.

The 0% notes carry potential dilution of their own. The $130 million tranche that closed June 30 matures July 1, 2031, and HIVE’s quarterly filing sets its initial exchange price at roughly $4.83 per share. The issuer can settle exchanges in cash, in common shares, or a combination.

HIVE’s GB200 Delivery Is Expected Toward the End of Q4 2026

HIVE expects the GB200 GPUs for the Cohere contract to arrive toward the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, for deployment in Canada. The company has set a target of about $200 million in GPU cloud ARR by the fourth calendar quarter of 2026, which it describes as subject to market conditions and successful deployment. The $129 million facility carries a three-year term, and the June tranche of 0% notes matures July 1, 2031.

Sources

Editorial Disclosure

This article is based on publicly available information, primarily HIVE Digital Technologies’ SEC filings and its original Newsfile releases. The security discussed is HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (TSX: HIVE) (Nasdaq: HIVE) (BVC: HIVECO). NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) is mentioned only as the GPU supplier, and BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE) (NYSE: BCE) only as the parent of Bell Canada, the contract counterparty; neither is the subject of this article. Cohere Inc. and Binance are private companies with no listed security. aktiego.com has not received any compensation from HIVE, its management, investor relations representatives, or any third party. No staff member or principal of aktiego.com holds a position in any security mentioned at the time of publication.

HIVE’s market capitalization, approximately US$524 million according to a third-party data provider (Yahoo Finance) at the time of writing, is materially larger than this coverage’s usual small, micro, and nano-cap focus. It was selected because no comparable smaller-cap story was found in the coverage window.

The $129 million facility is secured debt at a fixed 9.0% annual rate. It is backed by the GPUs and related assets of BUZZ Alpha Cloud, a limited recourse guarantee from BUZZ HPC, and a pledge of BUZZ HPC’s equity in BUZZ Alpha Cloud, and it includes required debt-service coverage ratios. HIVE’s own risk disclosure notes that after a default the lender could enforce against those assets, and that contract revenue may prove insufficient to service the facility.

The Cohere contract represents contracted, not yet realized, revenue. The GPUs it depends on had not been delivered as of the October 27 release, and HIVE’s own risk factors include delivery delays, customer counterparty risk, and possible termination or amendment of the contract. The revised $225 million contract value, the $600 million in total contract value signed this year, and the roughly $200 million GPU cloud ARR target are company-stated figures that aktiego.com has not independently verified.

The facility itself issues no shares, but HIVE issued 9,855,902 common shares under its ATM program in the quarter ended June 30, 2026, and its $245 million of 0% exchangeable notes may be settled in common shares. Capped call transactions are intended to reduce, not eliminate, dilution from those notes.

HIVE recorded an $84.7 million non-cash provision for contested Swedish VAT assessments after adverse Court of Appeal judgments; the company is appealing, and the final outcome is uncertain. No going concern language and no specific cash runway were identified in the sources reviewed.

The Binance theft figures cited reflect reporting as of October 30, 2026, and the situation was still developing at publication; readers should verify its current status independently. The sources reviewed contain no disclosure linking HIVE to the Binance incident. Bitcoin and other digital assets carry significant investment risk, including potential total loss of capital, and roughly 91% of HIVE’s most recent quarterly revenue came from digital currency mining.

Small cap and mid-cap stocks listed on the TSX and Nasdaq are speculative investments carrying significant risk including potential total loss of capital. Coverage on aktiego.com is provided for informational and educational purposes only. aktiego.com is not a registered investment advisor. Nothing in this article constitutes financial, investment, or professional advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For more information please see our full DISCLAIMER

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