AI Cloud Expansion
As generative AI adoption accelerates, demand for HPC compute power continues to outstrip supply, securing long-term cloud revenue.
Northern Data: Europe’s North Star For AI Solutions
Leveraging exclusive access to Nvidia's H200 GPUs and preparing for a potential U.S. IPO spin-off
ETR:NB2
Euro23.02-4.88%
Updated: May 02, 2025
Technology
smalleurope
Bull & Bear Case
An overview of the main reasons to invest and the key risks involved.
Bull Case
High-Density Data Centers
Investment in liquid-cooled infrastructure provides scalability and efficiency, making Ardent Data Centers an attractive colocation provider.
Bitcoin Mining Resurgence
The 2024 Bitcoin halving increases mining rewards for low-cost, energy-efficient operators, improving Peak Mining’s competitive positioning.
Bear Case
Competition in AI Cloud
Taiga Cloud competes with hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), facing pricing pressure and customer acquisition risks.
Bitcoin Volatility
If BTC price declines post-halving, mining margins could compress, impacting profitability and return on investment.
Regulatory & Energy Risks
Increasing AI regulation in Europe and energy market volatility could impact profitability and scalability.
Executive Summary
A Diversified Way To Play The Data Center Buildout
Northern Data Group is a global leader in High-Performance Computing (HPC), providing AI cloud services, state-of-the-art data center solutions, and Bitcoin mining infrastructure. Operating at the intersection of AI, cloud, and blockchain technology, the company delivers cutting-edge compute power for industries ranging from machine learning and life sciences to cryptocurrency mining and enterprise AI applications. Through its vertically integrated divisions—Taiga Cloud, Ardent Data Centers, and Peak Mining—Northern Data is positioning itself as a dominant player in the next era of digital transformation.
The investment case for Northern Data is built around three pillars: its unique positioning as Europe’s largest independent AI cloud provider, a strategic shift towards high-density, energy-efficient data centers, and its role as a major player in Bitcoin mining, benefiting from low-cost energy solutions. With strong growth in AI compute demand, a diversified revenue mix, and strategic capital investments, Northern Data is well-positioned to capitalize on the global AI and blockchain revolutions.
Investment Thesis
Overview of buy and sell case of the business.
Why Invest?
Key pieces of information about the business that you need to know about.
AI Cloud Expansion
The demand for generative AI models, machine learning applications, and large language model (LLM) training is fueling explosive growth in cloud computing, positioning Taiga Cloud to become a key player in the AI infrastructure space. The level of demand and scarcity of the NVIDIA GPU assets is reflected in high margins. Demand for these products is massively outstripping supply, providing significant scarcity value and pricing power. The company will leverage this scarce infrastructure to democratise AI for start-ups and research organisations who wish to utilise and study AI but may be unable to tap the sold-out capacity of large hyperscalers.
Bitcoin Mining Resurgence
Northern Data’s Peak Mining division is a top Bitcoin mining operation. A higher Bitcoin price post-halving would boost mining revenue as block rewards become more valuable, increase mining margins, making Northern Data’s energy-efficient operations more profitable, and renew institutional investment in blockchain & crypto startups, increasing demand for HPC services to support decentralized finance (DeFi), AI-driven crypto trading, and blockchain analytics.
The company is scaling up liquid-cooled WhatsMiner rigs, improving performance while benefiting from Bitcoin’s rising institutional adoption. With long-term power agreements and smart energy strategies, Peak Mining is well-positioned for sustained profitability.
Scaling with Efficiency
Through Ardent Data Centers, Northern Data is building next-generation liquid-cooled data centers designed to maximize computing power and efficiency. With new facilities in Pittsburgh, Norway, and Sweden, the company is expanding in strategic locations to support the growing demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) while benefiting from low-cost, renewable energy.
Catalysts
The key events that could drive investment opportunities and shift markets.
Data Center Expansion
Northern Data is expanding its data center capacity, with plans to add more facilities and increase computing power. Initial capacities are used to power their Taiga cloud business, but excess capacity will be sold into the market, likely garnering a premium in the current demand environment.
Taiga Cloud Scaling
Deployment of 20,000+ NVIDIA GPUs to meet AI model demand, securing long-term cloud contracts.
Selling Crypto Assets
In October 2024, management announced they were exploring the sale of their crypto-mining business. If carried out, this divestment would provide additional cash to fund further data centre growth. This would also clean the story up for investors, there are plenty of institutional investors who want more AI exposure without the complications of the crypto mining business. There has been no official update on these plans at time of writing.
Strategic M&A & AI Partnerships
There is potential for partnerships with sovereign cloud initiatives, AI startups, and acquisitions of niche data centers, which would help establish Northern Data as the go-to provider for carbon-neutral, high-performance AI infrastructure.
Key Risks
Key pieces of information about the business risks that you need to know about.
Scaling Against Hyperscalers
Northern Data is positioning itself as Europe’s AI cloud leader, but faces competition from AWS, Google, and Microsoft Azure, which have larger customer bases and deeper capital reserves. The ability to differentiate via low-latency, high-performance infrastructure will be key to capturing market share.
Post-Halving Uncertainty
With the 2024 Bitcoin halving reducing block rewards by 50%, only low-cost miners will survive. Northern Data’s energy arbitrage strategy and liquid-cooled hardware give it an edge, but BTC price volatility remains a long-term risk.
Regulatory & Energy Market Risks
As AI and Bitcoin mining face increased regulatory scrutiny, changes in European energy policy or carbon taxes could impact Northern Data’s cost structure. Ensuring long-term energy agreements and compliance with ESG standards will be critical.
Follow the Experts
Quickly navigate key insights from industry experts and leverage their knowledge and market intelligence.
Expert Insights
article
“Current expectations are that there will be approximately $1 trillion of capital expenditures in the United States over the next five years to build and facilitate new data centers.”
Expert Insights
article
"Northern Data is considering dropping the crypto side of its business to focus more on its artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions."
Expert Insights
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“Northern Data AG is shaking things up with its uplisting to the Prime Standard on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, eyeing completion by 2025.”
Expert Insights
article
“Northern Data will be the first cloud provider in Europe to offer the use of the recently launched powerful H200 GPU hardware from Nvidia...the move will help further build up Northern Data’s high-performance computing solutions”
Expert Insights
article
“AI and continued cloud adoption are the primary drivers of hyperscale data center growth. Rack density is rising as data centers adopt more power-hungry GPUs to support AI.”
Investor Materials
Access the most recent investor updates published by the company.
Key Documents
Q4 2024 Presentation
ArticleQ3 2024 Earnings Call Webcast
Annual Report
PDFCapital Markets Day 2024
PDFExternal Insights
A curated collection of third-party content relevant to the company and sector to help inform your investment decision.
Data Centers
Northern Data Group Accelerates Focus on AI Solutions Business and Explores Potential Transaction of Mining Business - Silicon Canals
ArticleContacts
Team
Meet the experienced professionals leading our organization
Aroosh Thillainathan
Elliot Jordan
Rosanne Kincaid-Smith
Rudolph Haas
What the Pro's Are Asking
Here are the questions that professional investors are asking before making an investment decision.
Why do companies outsource their Cloud AI workloads?
There are several reasons behind the outsourcing of AI workloads:
Cost Efficiency – Setting up in-house AI infrastructure requires significant capital investment in hardware, software, and specialized personnel. By using third-party AI cloud services, companies can access scalable computing power on demand without the heavy upfront costs.
Scalability – Third-party cloud providers offer high-performance computing (HPC) environments with virtually unlimited scalability. This allows companies to scale up or down quickly based on their needs, without worrying about capacity limitations.
Speed to Market – Using third-party services enables companies to accelerate the development and deployment of AI applications. These platforms provide ready-made tools, APIs, and infrastructure, reducing the time required to build AI solutions from scratch.
What is Northern Datas company history?
Northern Data AG was founded in 2019, initially focusing on cryptocurrency mining infrastructure following the merger of Northern Bitcoin AG and Whinstone US, a leading data center developer in Texas. The company initially concentrated on large-scale Bitcoin mining operations. As demand for high-performance computing (HPC) grew, Northern Data expanded its services by acquiring Decentric Europe and Ardent Data Centers, which strengthened its GPU-based computing capabilities for AI, blockchain, and scientific research. These acquisitions positioned Northern Data as a leader in energy-efficient data centers, marking its transition from mining to broader HPC services.
What is the competitive landscape?
The market for high-performance computing and cloud services is highly competitive, with major players like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure offering similar services. Northern Data may face challenges competing against these established tech giants, both in terms of pricing and technological capabilities. Impressively, the company has secured access to the highly demanded NVIDIA GPUs, including the latest Blackwell range.
What are GPUs and CPUs?
Historically, central processing units (CPUs) have been the default choice for data center servers due to their versatility in handling a wide range of computational tasks. However, graphics processing units (GPUs), originally developed for specialized tasks like graphics rendering, have become the leading processors for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. Unlike CPUs, which rely on a few highly optimized cores, GPUs are equipped with thousands of smaller cores that can operate in parallel, enabling them to perform large-scale, specialized mathematical operations simultaneously. This parallel processing capability makes GPUs ideal for AI and machine learning applications.
How does Northern Data differentiate itself from competitors in the high-performance computing (HPC) space?
Northern Data differentiates itself through its focus on energy-efficient data centers and expertise in high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. The company also integrates sustainable practices, aiming to reduce energy consumption while delivering powerful computing capabilities. This commitment to green computing provides a competitive advantage, especially as more industries prioritize environmental sustainability in their operations.