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Key Points
Bitdeer is making a major pivot from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, highlighted by a $4.7 billion, 16-year agreement with Volta Infrastructure to convert its Norwegian mining campus into four AI data halls serving Anthropic.
The deal gives Anthropic access to 133 megawatts of Norwegian hydropower and wind energy, computing capacity, and Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chips while reducing its dependence on Amazon.
The agreement could create new opportunities for AI infrastructure stocks, with Bitdeer, Nvidia, and Dell positioned to benefit while JPMorgan’s $1.3 billion credit backstop helps reduce the financial risk of the massive long-term lease.
In a somewhat hush-hush deal reported by Bloomberg on August 4, Anthropic signed a six-year, $10 billion agreement with Volta Infrastructure, a Singapore-based AI neocloud startup that, according to its website, “is the upstream enabling layer for AI infrastructure in high-growth markets,” which “control[s] the physical prerequisites that make hyperscale deployment possible.”
With this deal, Anthropic receives exclusive access to 133 gross megawatts (“MW”) of power capacity from Volta at Bitdeer Technologies’ (BTDR) Tydal data-center campus in Norway. This ensures Anthropic has plenty of Norwegian hydropower and wind energy to train its next-generation Claude AI models.
But the Anthropic news is only one layer of a much bigger deal between Bitdeer and Volta.
On August 4, Bitdeer signed a 16-year lease and services agreement with Volta worth roughly $4.7 billion in scheduled payments through its initial term. The deal could potentially reach a total of $8 billion through a one-time eight-year lease extension, per Bitdeer.
Bitdeer expects to deliver the 133 gross MW capacity through four data halls (which are secure areas housed inside data centers) split into two phases… The first is slated for completion by December 31 and the second by March 31, 2027.
The data halls – which are being converted from a bitcoin-mining campus – will be outfitted with PowerRack infrastructure from Dell Technologies (DELL) using Nvidia (NVDA) advanced Vera Rubin AI-accelerator chips.
It’s all a bit complicated, so here’s a quick recap of each deal:
The Volta-Bitdeer Deal: $4.7 Billion Over 16 Years, With a Path to $8 Billion
Volta and Bitdeer agreed to a 16-year physical infrastructure colocation lease and services agreement in which Volta pays $4.7 billion in total contracted revenue to Bitdeer, with options that could push the total value to $8 billion.
Bitdeer supplies 133 gross MW of renewable power to Volta through four data halls in Tydal, Norway.
Bitdeer takes on the physical conversion of the bitcoin-mining facilities into data-center structures and runs the operations (such as power management and cooling) for each facility.
Volta deploys Dell and Nvidia AI hardware within the facilities.
The Anthropic-Volta Deal: $10 Billion for Six Years of Tydal Capacity
Anthropic and Volta agreed to a six-year contract that involves Anthropic paying Volta $10 billion to secure direct cloud access to the computing capacity from the Tydal data centers, which it will use to train its Claude models.
Volta is effectively the neocloud layer between the physical site (owned by Bitdeer) and the data-center equipment from Dell and Nvidia, which Volta will install and manage.
These are important deals for a couple of reasons. For one, they demonstrate how AI companies are increasingly looking outside the box (in this case, to Norway) to secure the power they need to train and run their constantly evolving models.
The deals also illustrate the push that AI companies are making to use the newest generations of chips… in this case, Nvidia’s much-anticipated Vera Rubin architecture. They also show how traditional bitcoin-mining companies like Bitdeer are finding other revenue streams – in this case, converting its crypto sites into AI cloud data halls – during a time when the crypto market as a whole is trying to find its footing after losing roughly 50% of its value since its peak last October.
Investors noticed Bitdeer’s strategy shift after its deal with Volta (and Volta’s deal with Anthropic) and pushed the stock up as high as roughly 14%, to $12.93, during August 4 trading.
The JPMorgan $1.3 Billion Credit Backstop That Was Key to the Bitdeer-Volta Deal
Inconspicuously listed as the 10th bullet point, way down within Bitdeer’s August 4 press release announcing the deal with Volta, was this:
Institutional-grade Credit Support: Volta’s obligations are anticipated to be backed by Letters of Credit arranged by affiliates of J.P. Morgan and another top-tier global financial institution, totaling approximately $1.3 billion and subject to customary conditions.
This is critical. JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) credit support was instrumental in facilitating the deal. And this $1.3 billion credit backstop essentially secures Volta’s payment obligations and helps protect Bitdeer against potential credit defaults by Volta, a company still in its infancy.
But it’s JPMorgan’s credit-decoupling structure that made it all possible. With JPMorgan and another top-tier bank putting together the $1.3 billion in letters of credit, Bitdeer didn’t have to underwrite a massive loan for a new startup (Volta) on an equally massive 16-year lease. Instead, it underwrote for two globally elite financial institutions.
Put simply, JPMorgan’s letters of credit “decoupled” Volta’s basically non-existent credit profile from the deal. This allowed Bitdeer to secure a major AI data-center lease without taking on Volta’s potential credit risk.
While this credit separation paved the way for Bitdeer’s pivot from crypto miner to high-margin data-center landlord, the fact remains that Bitdeer still needs up to $500 million to fund infrastructure costs and meet the aggressive deadlines. Bitdeer plans to finance through debt and a dilutive $1 billion stock offering.
Even as it flies somewhat under the radar, JPMorgan’s backing in this deal could very well represent a pivotal moment of the AI boom. By providing the $1.3 billion letters-of-credit backstop, JPMorgan told the world that Wall Street is ready to assume the risk inherent in brokering deals between startup AI companies and data-center operators.
In other words, AI-startup financing may have just transitioned from high-risk venture into institutional-grade backing.
This deal also opens the door for other bitcoin miners to pivot from volatile crypto mining toward AI infrastructure (as Bitdeer did) without taking on significant lending risks. And, of course, JPMorgan’s role in this deal encourages new AI startups to seek substantial data-center leases if they can secure bank-grade credit.
What This Deal Means for Bitdeer, Dell, Nvidia, and Anthropic
Besides providing the AI hardware and infrastructure for the data centers in Norway, Dell CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia backed Volta as it raised $300 million in venture funding, which valued the company at $2.4 billion. So, Dell and Nvidia are – literally – invested in Volta’s deal with Bitdeer.
But all parties involved stand to benefit. Here’s how.
Bitdeer (BTDR): $4.7 Billion Guaranteed, but a “Very Bearish” Rating
Bitdeer may gain the most from its deal with Volta, as the company almost instantly morphed from a struggling bitcoin-mining business into a landlord of four potentially high-margin AI data halls in Norway.
The company’s strategic decision to convert its energy-intensive bitcoin-mining campuses into data centers is already paying off, as the 16-year lease with Volta guarantees the company at least $4.7 billion – with the potential of that sum growing to $8 billion if the lease is extended.
Bitdeer could certainly use it. While its total revenue was strong during the second quarter of fiscal 2026 ($228.8 million, a year-over-year increase of 47%), the company suffered a year-over-year gross loss of $8.5 million and a net loss of $92.3 million – both significantly worse numbers than 2025’s, though improvements from the previous quarter. Additionally, its generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) earnings per share (“EPS”) of negative $0.37 missed consensus expectations.
Bitdeer stock has been on a gradual downward slide since the start of the year, dropping nearly 25% as of August 11.
Chaikin Analytics, the investment-research platform founded in 2009 by legendary 60-year Wall Street veteran Marc Chaikin, rates Bitdeer “very bearish” in its Chaikin Power Gauge, a 20-factor stock-rating system that scans more than 5,000 stocks and 2,300 exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”).
Despite the bearishness, Bitdeer could rebound as it establishes itself more as a data-center landlord rather than a shaky crypto company.
Nvidia (NVDA): Backing the Customer That Buys Its Chips
It’s not as if the chip bellwether was relying on these Bitdeer/Volta/Anthropic deals to turn its fortunes around. It is, after all, the most valuable company in the world. But these types of deals certainly don’t hurt, especially as Nvidia rolls out its next-generation Vera Rubin AI architecture on a large scale.
The Bitdeer/Volta data-center campus is simply a showcase for Nvidia’s latest and greatest. But by backing – both financially and with its state-of-the-art technology – a specialized startup like Volta, Nvidia diversifies and expands its already sizeable footprint. And it will likely result in more startups lining up at Nvidia’s door, hoping for the same level of support.
Unsurprisingly, Nvidia gets a “very bullish” rating from the Chaikin Power Gauge.
Dell (DELL): PowerRack and Liquid Cooling Inside All Four Tydal Halls
Most people know Dell as a long-standing, successful, and reputable business within the consumer-computing industry. But the company has proven itself to be a major player in the AI world. These deals further solidify that sentiment.
The Bitdeer/Volta deal places Dell’s enterprise hardware, PowerRack server systems, and liquid cooling technology into the new data halls in Norway – another major milestone for Dell’s growing AI business.
And it’s that AI business that has pushed Dell stock up 245% since the start of 2026 (as of August 11) and prompted a “very bullish” Chaikin Power Gauge rating.
Anthropic: 133 MW and Less Reliance on Amazon
The Volta deal is huge for Anthropic on a couple of fronts. First and foremost, it gets 133 gross MW of power that it desperately needs to run the infrastructure that will train and deploy its next-generation Claude AI models and Claude Code.
Second, it secures this infrastructure using renewable, clean energy at a large scale. By tapping into Norway’s nearly carbon-free hydropower, Anthropic not only complies with strict European environmental regulations, but it also avoids the overly congested U.S. power grid and its yearslong connectivity wait times.
And this transaction also lessens Anthropic’s dependence on Amazon (AMZN), its main cloud provider. Expanding your supplier network, especially geographically, is never a bad idea in the AI world. Doing so will help Anthropic avoid bottlenecks, reduce geopolitical risk, and even improve performance.
The Risks: $500 Million Unfunded and a Chip That Just Started Shipping
While these agreements certainly have upsides for all involved parties, there are some risky elements… especially for Anthropic and Bitdeer.
Let’s start with Bitdeer. Per the agreement, the company must finish roughly $500 million of physical build-out on the Tydal data-center campus to meet both phases of delivery – the first by the end of 2026, the second by the end of next March.
The problem is, as of August 12, Bitdeer has not yet closed financing for those funds. If Bitdeer fails to meet those delivery deadlines, it faces potentially steep penalties and even the possibility of contract termination.
For Anthropic, the primary risk is the heavy reliance on a brand-new cloud infrastructure company (Volta) as the only safety net between itself and the hardware to be provided by Dell and Nvidia.
Speaking of hardware, that’s no sure thing either, considering large-scale production of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform only began in late May. Deploying the new hardware on the expedited timeline required by Bitdeer’s delivery deadlines undoubtedly introduces a layer of uncertainty.
Do the potential upsides outweigh the risks of these deals? That all depends on the level of risk investors are willing to take on. Sure, there’s a possibility that the Volta deal blows up for Anthropic. After all, it’s putting a lot of faith in a company that has only existed since January – a company that will be responsible for installing the hardware and managing the cloud-computing-power operation of a massive new data-center campus.
But that deal also secures much-needed computing capacity for Anthropic’s newest Claude models. And it expands the company’s global footprint.
For Bitdeer, this deal opens a brand-new revenue stream as a data-center landlord – one that should be far steadier and more lucrative than its bitcoin-mining business. We should know by next spring whether these deals proved successful not only for Bitdeer and Anthropic, but also for Dell and Nvidia.
Regards,
David Engle
Editor’s Note: Marc Chaikin, the founder of Chaikin Analytics, built an award-winning system that flagged Nvidia as a BUY before it soared as high as 45,000%. It also turned “bearish” on software stocks two months before they crashed this year. Now, Marc’s warning that a “jump to lightspeed” has taken place behind the doors of a Silicon Valley AI lab – and says the repercussions are about to cleave the market in half this summer. This 60-year Wall Street legend has a FREE Hotlist of stocks to buy and an urgent Hitlist of stocks to sell now. Click for the full story, including stock names and tickers here…