Bitdeer lands $4.7 billion AI data center lease in Norway. Bitcoin mining operator substantially pivots capital to AI infrastructure.
Bitdeer Technologies Group has entered the artificial intelligence infrastructure colocation market through a 16-year lease and services agreement at its Tydal campus in Norway with Volta Tydal AS, a subsidiary of AI infrastructure platform Volta. The agreement represents approximately $4.7 billion in contracted revenue over its base term, with an embedded eight-year renewal option that could increase the total value to approximately $8 billion over 24 years.
Bitdeer will lease 121 IT megawatts, supported by 133 gross megawatts, to Volta. The facility will be configured across four existing data halls to operate NVIDIA Rubin GPUs, with Dell Technologies serving as the technology provider. Volta's sole end customer at the site will be a leading AI lab, according to Chief Strategy Officer Haris Basit, though the customer remains unidentified.
The deployment is divided into two equal phases of 60.5 IT megawatts each. Phase one, spanning data halls two and three and a portion of data hall one, is targeted to commence December 31, 2026. The second phase, covering data hall four and the remainder of hall one, is targeted to begin March 31, 2027.
Bitdeer is also developing two additional data halls at Tydal totaling 47 gross megawatts, outside the Volta lease, with a target completion date in the second half of 2027. The company intends to retain flexibility for those remaining megawatts for AI and high-performance computing uses.
Under the modified gross lease, the initial combined rate is approximately $160 per kilowatt per month, including base rent and service fees, with electricity costs reimbursed on a pass-through basis to protect Bitdeer from energy-price volatility. A 3% annual escalator applies to both base rent and service fees, resulting in an expected average realized rate of approximately $202 per kilowatt per month over the 16-year base term. Bitdeer expects average annual revenue of approximately $2.4 million per IT megawatt and average annual site revenue of approximately $290 million, with an estimated net operating income margin of approximately 90%.
Estimated remaining capital expenditure is approximately $500 million, or about $4 million per IT megawatt. Volta's obligations are expected to be backed by credit support of approximately $1.3 billion issued severally by J.P. Morgan and other top-tier global financial institutions. The structure does not involve shareholder dilution and preserves Bitdeer's ownership of the Tydal campus. The company plans to raise additional debt financing to fund the remaining build-out while also providing capital for future projects.
The Tydal facility is already energized and connected directly to Norway's hydropower grid, supported by a regional network of 16 hydropower stations and a wind farm. Bitdeer is upgrading electrical systems to meet 4N/3 redundancy requirements for NVIDIA's Rubin NVL72 racks. The full 180-megawatt gross capacity is protected by four independent 60-megawatt-hour battery energy storage systems.
The campus uses two independent water supplies for a closed-loop hydrocooling system with a power usage effectiveness of approximately 1.1. Connectivity is supported by redundant, carrier-neutral fiber infrastructure from providers Telenor and NT Telecom. Bitdeer plans to export waste heat from the data halls to an adjacent 112,000-square-meter business area being developed for potential users, including possible local food-production businesses.