Editorial Team
5 min read
Keel has shut U.S. bitcoin mines. Its three priority AI sites have not started.
Keel Infrastructure has completed its U.S. bitcoin-mining shutdown and is developing former power sites for high-performance computing. But its filing says none of the three priority U.S. sites had begun HPC operations or recorded related revenue as of Aug. 7, leaving contracts, funding and execution—not the shutdown itself—as the next test.
- Keel ended U.S. bitcoin mining by June 29, but had not started HPC operations or recognized HPC revenue at its three priority U.S. sites as of Aug. 7.
- The reported $65.0 million quarterly net loss followed a $140.8 million operating loss that included $84.1 million of depreciation and amortization; roughly $63.0 million of that depreciation was accelerated for the shutdown.
- Its reported $819 million of liquidity buys development time, but includes $121 million of bitcoin and does not substitute for a tenant contract or construction financing.
Keel Infrastructure has completed the operational part of its U.S. pivot away from bitcoin mining. The commercial part is still pending: the company says it is developing data centers for high-performance computing (HPC), including AI workloads, but its latest filing says it had neither begun HPC operations nor recorded related revenue at Moses Lake, Panther Creek or Sharon as of Aug. 7.
That distinction is the important one. The shutdown turns former mining sites into possible data-center projects; it does not itself establish a leased AI-infrastructure business.
A new parent, an old operating base
Keel is the New York-headquartered digital-infrastructure and energy company that became the ultimate parent of Canadian miner Bitfarms through an April U.S. redomiciliation. Bitfarms—renamed Backbone Hosting Solutions in an internal June reorganization—remains Keel's indirect wholly owned subsidiary. The filing says the legal change did not alter the underlying operating business, management or strategy; it put the former miner inside a U.S. parent pursuing data-center development.
Keel stopped mining at its Washington site on April 28 and then at Panther Creek, Scrubgrass and Sharon in Pennsylvania on June 29. It is not, however, a clean break from every legacy power-related revenue stream. The company says it continues to generate revenue from energy sales at Panther Creek and Scrubgrass while evaluating those sites for HPC and AI; as of Aug. 7, they had about 60 MW and 63 MW of gross energized capacity, respectively, not contracted under an electric-supply agreement. Keel also says it continues legacy bitcoin-mining operations in Canada while it works to transition its Québec sites.
The immediate U.S. projects are more narrowly defined than a general claim of AI capacity suggests. Moses Lake is being developed as an 18-MW gross HPC data center, while Keel plans to convert Sharon, a 110-MW gross site. At Sherbrooke, Québec, city approval enabled an agreement with Hydro-Sherbrooke to transfer and operate 96 MW of existing capacity and to buy land for a campus. That project still requires approval from Québec's Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy for the change of use, and its land purchase remains subject to conditions.
