Northern Data Stake, October 2026: RUM Group Nears Full Control After Reported $13.7 Billion AI Deal
Having raised its Northern Data stake to approximately 98% following a reported $13.7 billion AI-computing deal, RUM Group was reported in October 2026 to be boosting its holding further toward outright ownership of the European data-centre operator.
The consolidation of European AI-computing infrastructure took another significant step in October 2026, when RUM Group — the entity that emerged from US video-streaming platform Rumble following its Northern Data acquisition — was reported to be increasing its stake in the German data-centre operator and moving toward outright ownership. The development is the latest in a sequence of moves that has, over the course of 2026, redrawn the ownership structure of one of Europe's more prominent neocloud businesses, and it marks a rapid if still-incomplete transformation of a media platform into a transatlantic AI-infrastructure operator.
The formal close of the Rumble-Northern Data transaction was reported in June 2026, accompanied by an announcement that the combined group would operate as RUM Group and be reorganised into two core business units. That structural decision signalled an intent to treat the acquired infrastructure as a distinct operating segment rather than absorbing it into an existing platform. Shareholder endorsement of the transaction proved substantial: reports reaching Slicast in August 2026 indicated that approximately 85% of voting shareholders had approved the acquisition, providing a broad mandate for the group's strategic pivot into AI-computing capacity.
RUM Group's stake-building did not plateau at simple majority ownership. By September 2026, according to reporting received that month, the group had raised its holding in Northern Data to approximately 98% — a threshold that, in many jurisdictions, enables a formal statutory process to buy out remaining minority holders. That same reporting linked the move to a $13.7 billion AI-computing deal, a figure that, originating from a single published source, warrants independent corroboration before being treated as established fact. Reports received by Slicast in October 2026 indicate that the stake has since been raised further, with full control now in prospect.
While ownership was consolidating, Northern Data's operational footprint was expanding geographically. Also reported in September 2026, the company disclosed plans for an AI data centre at a former papermill site in Moscow-Pullman, Washington state — a notable step for a group whose data-centre credentials have been rooted in European operations.
The path to full control carries identifiable strategic rationale alongside material risks. Complete statutory ownership removes the governance frictions associated with a minority public float and gives RUM Group unconstrained authority to allocate capital across its European data-centre estate and its emerging US presence. The two-business-unit structure established at rebranding should, in principle, create the internal accounting clarity needed to evaluate the infrastructure arm on its own merits, separately from the legacy media operation. Against these considerations, the risks are proportionate to the ambition: the scale implied by the single-source $13.7 billion figure, combined with a simultaneous transatlantic build-out, demands sustained capital discipline and the management depth needed to operate two structurally distinct businesses under unified ownership. Integration — cultural as much as financial — between a video-platform heritage and large-scale data-centre operations is a challenge that proceeds independently of corporate-law mechanics.
Three signals merit close attention. First, whether the reported $13.7 billion AI-computing commitment can be independently confirmed — and whether counterparties, duration, and service terms are disclosed — will be the clearest test of the commercial foundation underpinning this expansion programme. Second, the emergence of contracted off-take agreements and a credible construction timeline for the Moscow-Pullman facility will indicate whether the US push is demand-led or is capacity being built speculatively ahead of customer commitments. Third, the formal completion of the Northern Data squeeze-out and the first consolidated financial statements produced under unified RUM Group ownership will give the market the unified metrics needed to judge whether one of 2026's more ambitious AI-infrastructure combinations is delivering on its original premise.