Crypto12 October, 20262 min read
SWI Group Raises €800M To Repurpose Genesis Digital Assets Into AI Data Centers
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SWI Group raised €800 million to convert Genesis Digital Assets into AI data centers. Genesis Digital Assets was a FTX-backed miner with about 20% stake before bankruptcy.
8 outlets told this the same way.
From miner to AI
SWI Group raised 800 million euros to repurpose the former FTX-backed bitcoin miner Genesis Digital Assets into an artificial intelligence-focused data center, valuing the company at 6.1 billion euros. SWI said it would use the proceeds from an 800 million euro fund-raising, including 894 million dollars, to transform Genesis Digital Assets from a bitcoin miner into an AI-focused data center. SWI planned to repurpose Genesis Digital Assets’ facilities in the U.S. and Sweden for AI workloads while selling the unit’s sites in Kazakhstan, and it renamed the mining venture to SWI Digital after completing its acquisition.
SWI Group is an Amsterdam-listed digital infrastructure investment firm controlling the former bitcoin miner, and SWI Group raised 800 million euros to convert the FTX-backed miner into AI data centers. SWI Group’s 800-million-euro, or about $900 million, capital raise would fund AI and data center expansion plans in Europe and the United States.
Stakes, control, and power
SWI said it acquired roughly 40% of Genesis Digital in June for 500 million dollars, and it completed the acquisition in August with 70% of voting rights before renaming the unit SWI Digital. SWI announced in June that it had acquired “significant shareholding” in Genesis for $500 million, and SWI held a 70% stake in Genesis as of August. Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm owned by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, invested more than 1 billion dollars in Genesis Digital Assets since 2021 and owned about 20% of the miner.
The acquisition of Genesis came as the debtors behind the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings sought to claw back funds, and the Genesis stake was tied to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried directing Alameda Research to spend more than $1 billion to buy a 20% stake between 2021 and 2022. SWI’s CEO, Max-Hervé George, told The Wall Street Journal that he had “zero interest” in bitcoin mining, while SWI intended to use its facilities in the U.S. and Sweden for AI workloads instead.
What SWI says comes next
SWI said it would expand artificial intelligence projects and data centers in Europe and the United States, and it described its plan as transforming Genesis Digital Assets’ facilities for AI workloads while selling Kazakhstan sites. CoinDesk said SWI’s most valuable asset was no longer its mining machines but the electrical connections and data center sites that could be repurposed for AI clients, and it said bitcoin miners had signed over 70 billion dollars in AI and high-performance computing contracts. SWI intended to use the proceeds from the 800 million euro fund-raising to transform Genesis Digital Assets, acquired after FTX’s bankruptcy, from a bitcoin miner into an artificial intelligence-focused data center.
Max-Hervé George reportedly said all the legal disputes related to FTX’s stake in Genesis had been resolved, and the fundraising was framed as scaling data center and AI computing capacity. SWI intended to use the proceeds from the 800 million euro fund-raising to transform Genesis Digital Assets, acquired after FTX’s bankruptcy, from a bitcoin miner into an artificial intelligence-focused data center.